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ROBERT B. ROSS.
LANDMARKS OF DETROIT
A
HISTORY OF THE CITY
k
BY
ROBERT B.
ROSS
AND
GEORGE B.
CATLIN
REVISED^!
3Y
CLARENCE -W''
/burton
PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF
THE EVENING NEWS ASSOCIATION
DETROIT
i8q8
i
PREFACE.
While the history of most American cities is rather commonplace,
there are a few which furnish a story of facts more fascinating than
any romance. In the development of a new country the civilization,
which in time leavens the great mass of barbarism, works from a few
central points. In North America Boston became the nucleus of the
New England colony, although it was not the first settlement. James-
town was the first settlement of the Virginia colony, but the town
never attained great importance. New York and Philadelphia became
important towns, but for the first century of their existence their
influence extended over but a small area. Detroit, from the date of its
founding, nearly 200 years ago, became the metropolis of the region
of the great lakes and the guardian of the straits. For a period of 125
years Detroit was both the rallying point and the emporium of the
West. Three nations struggled and shed their blood for its possession.
Before the advent of the railroad it was almost the only gateway of the
vast territory between the great lakes and the Pacific Ocean.
The French outstripped the British in pushing their colonies west-
ward and founded Detroit as their stronghold for the defense of the
great lakes in 1701. After fifty-nine years the British crowded them
off the soil of Canada and the West, leaving them only Louisiana. Then
came the war of the Revolution and Detroit was the headquarters of
British operations in the West. From this military stronghold they
maintained an Indian warfare upon the outlying American settlements,
while the male colonists were fighting in the East. In 1783 the Ameri-
ca
CO
can Revolution ended, and the treaty of Paris acknowledged the inde-
pendence of the United States and their possession of all the territory
east of the Mississippi and south of the Great Lakes. But Great Britain
saw the important position of Detroit as a headquarters for renewing
the war to recover the lost colonies and refused to fulfill the terms of
the treaty. During the next thirteen years the British commandants
at Detroit were constantly employed in setting the Indians upon the
American settlers in the Ohio valley, and stated prices were paid for
the scalps of hundreds of white men, women and children at the fort in
this city. After Gen. Anthony Wayne defeated the British and Indians
on the Maumee River the Jay treaty was accomplished, which gave
Detroit to the United States, but the British continued to incite the
Indians against the Americans and afflict them in various ways until
the war of 1812 became a necessity. Again Detroit was the center of
military operations, and one of the first acts of the British government
was to secure its possession by treachery. Perry's victory on Lake
Erie compelled them to evacuate Detroit in 1813, and since that time
the city has been an undisputed possession of the American govern-
ment.
From first to last Detroit has been a city of thrilling events. The
wars with the Indians were all centered about this city, and it was here
that the conspiracy of Pontiac, the greatest leader of his race, was
foiled, although it succeeded in every other post attacked. These
are but a few of the dramatic events which make up the history.
The development of the city as a commercial power is no less interest-
ing than its early struggle for existence. The compilers have expend-
ed much conscientious labor upon the work, and have spared no pains
to secure exact information from the most reliable sources. By the aid
of manuscripts and correspondence, which have come to light during
the last decade, many standard myths and fanciful traditions have
been dispelled and disproved. It has been the aim to prepare a correct
history of Detroit in the narrative style, giving the natural chronolog-
ical order of events. This makes a work adapted for general reading
as well as a book of reference, a book which it is believed will be en-
joyed by readers of all ages.
To avoid diverting the attention of the reader by the use of foot
notes, all explanatory matter and references have been incorporated in
the regular text of the book. Each prominent man is introduced with
a succinct biography which describes his personal appearance and his
most striking characteristics, without glossing over his faults, with-
out detracting from his merits. The co-relation and significance of
the principal events is also shown understandingly. Landmarks of
Detroit is a narrative of extraordinary interest for which the compilers
claim no particular credit. They have only taken the natural course
of events and combined them in consecutive order.
We desire to express grateful acknowledgments to Mr. C. M. Burton,
of Detroit, who has taken' a personal interest in this work from the
first. Mr. Burton is known everywhere as the possessor of the most
complete historical library in the West. He has about 10,000 volumes,
and at least 25,000 manuscripts, which relate either directly or indi-
rectly to Detroit. He has complete files of most of the old newspapers
of the city and the official and commercial correspondence of the early
settlers. The correspondence of Cadillac and the other French com-
mandants, the correspondence of the British commandants and later
documents, showing the development of the western territory into
States, is also to be found in his library. All this priceless material
Mr. Burton placed at the disposal of the compilers, and he took so pro-
found an interest in the work that he revised all the manuscripts and
the proofs. The fact that this matter has passed through Mr. Burton's
hands and has met his approval, is the best recommendation of the
work we can offer. The matter has been culled from original sources
in order to avoid, as much as possible, the errors which have crept into
standard histories.
Acknowledgment is also due to Mr. Richard R. ElHott, who fur-
nished valuable matter regarding the history of the early Jesuit mis-
sion, the affairs of old Ste. Anne's and the conspiracy of Pontiac. That
the book contains many errors cannot bed oubted. It is not given to
man to produce perfect work. Landmarks of Detroit is submitted with
a confidence which is supported by the hard and conscientious work
which has been expended upon it.
The compilers,
Robert B. Ross,
George B. Catlin.
VI
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
The Coming of Cadillac — He is Accompanied by Fifty Soldiers, Fifty Civilians
and One Hundred Algonquin Indians— Selects Detroit as the Most Com-
manding Position on the Straits . 1-5
CHAPTER II.
Early Discoveries in North America— Great Britain and Spain Held the Coast-
France Aimed to Secure Canada, the Lake Region, the Mississippi River
and the Unknown West.— 1492-1701 6-13
CHAPTER III.
The Great Explorers — Robert Cavalier de La Salle — The Cruise of Le Griffon —
Father Hennepin Visits the Upper Mississippi — Daniel Grisolon Duluth
Builds a Fort at the Foot of Lake Huron— 1669-1700 12-21
CHAPTER IV.
Cadillac the Founder of Detroit — A Clever Gascon Who Has Been Much Ma-
ligned— He was a Privateer Preying upon the New England Coast — Then
Commandant at Mackinaw— 1668-1701 21-31
CHAPTER V.
Cadillac Foolishly Quarrels with the Jesuits and Lays the Foundation of all His
Misfortunes — He Wanted to Sell Brandy to the Indians in Defiance of the
Law— 1685-1700 32-39
CHAPTER VI.
Indians and Coureurs de Bois — Characteristics of the Indians and of the Half-
Wild Voyageurs, Who Were the First Commercial Travelers in America —
1660-1700 39-47
CHAPTER VII.
What the Pioneers Found at Detroit — Events Contemporaneous with the Found-
ing of the City — Description of the Fauna and Flora of the Region as De-
scribed in Ancient Reports— 1701-1703 47-58
CHAPTER VIII.
Plots and Counterplots between Cadillac and His Enemies— The Merchants of
Montreal Oppose the Development of Detroit for Fear of Its Future Rivalry
— Detroit was a Great Beaver Region 58-67
CHAPTER IX.
Cadillac Quells a Conspiracy — Agents of the Company of the Colony Detected
in Stealing — Their Friends Support Them — Cadillac Summoned to Montreal
for Trial 67-76
CHAPTER X.
Father Del Halle, the First Pastor of St. Anne's Church, Murdered by the In-
dians— Cadillac is Sent from Montreal to Punish the Murderer — His Enemies
Seek to Compromise Him with the Indians and with His Superiors — 1706-
1708 ..-. 77-85
CHAPTER XI.
Early Official Reports on Detroit — Cadillac's Enemies Plot to Have the Post
Abandoned — They Willfully Misrepresent Affairs to the Government — 1701-
1710 85-89
CHAPTER XII.
First Families of Detroit — The First Directory and Tax List as Compiled by C.
M. Burton— Inventory of the Property Owned by Cadillac— 1701-1710 ...90-116
CHAPTER XIII.
How the Confusion Arose Among the Names of the Pioneers — Father Christian
Denissen's Discoveries Regarding the Changing of Family Names llG-119
CHAPTER XIV.
Cadillac is Made Governor of Louisiana — His Apparent Promotion is a Scheme
of His Enemies — They Confiscate His Propert}' and He Returns to France
Ruined and Heartbroken— 1710-1720 119-124
viii
CHAPTER XV.
Pierre Francois de Charlevoix Visits Detroit in 1711 — Detroit is Declared a Most
Desirable and Important Post — Founding of the Huron Mission at Sandwich
in 1728 _ 124-130
CHAPTER XVI.
Detroit is Beseiged by the Sacs and Foxes, Indians from Green Bay — The
Church of St. Anne's Burned — Hard Fought Battle at Windmill Point in
Which the Hostile Indians are Defeated— 1712 . 130-137
CHAPTER XVn.
A Feud Commenced Between the Huron and Ottawa Tribes— The Hurons Com-
pelled to Flee to Sandusky — They Return to Settle at Bois Blanc Island and
Later at Sandwich— 1735-1746 137-143
CHAPTER XVIII.
Recreations and Occupations of the Early Settlers — Races Between the Fleet
French Ponies on the Ice — Attempt to Extend the French Domain in Ohio
and Pennsylvania— 1750-1760 143-148
CHAPTER XIX.
Feeble Attempts to Strengthen the French Outposts — The Determination of
Great Britain to Seize the French Strongholds Becomes Apparant — 1755-
1760 - 148-152
CHAPTER XX.
Rise of William Pitt in England — His Aggressive Territorial Policy Culminates
in a Border War — The French are Beaten at Every Point — Quebec, Mon-
treal, Detroit and Du Quesne Surrendered to the British— 1755-1760 . .152-162
CHAPTER XXI.
The British Take Possession of Detroit — Pontiac Demands Recognition of Them
— The Indians Prefer Frenchmen Who Treat Them as Equals — They Show
an Inclination to Attack the Newcomers— 1760 162-169
CHAPTER XXII. ^
Pontiac, the Napoleon of the Western Indians — He Conspires with the Chiefs of
Sixty Tribes to Drive the British Out of the Country— His Plans are Be-
trayed to Commandant Gladwin— 1761-1763 169-178
CHAPTER XXIII.
Detroit is Besieged by 2,()0<) Indians — Murder of Captain Donald Campbell and
a Number of Settlers — Massacres at Mackinaw, St. Joseph, Miami, Sandusky
and Other Posts— 1763.... 178-190
CHAPTER XXIV.
Detroit was Saved by Pretty Angelique Cuillerier Beaubien — The Belle of the
French Settlement Learns of Pontiac's Treachery — She Tells Her Lover,
James Sterling, and Sterling Informs Gladwin— 1763 190-193
CHAPTER XXV.
The British Home Government Neglects the Colonies and Detroit Languishes as
a Settlement— The Selfish PoHcy of the British Tradesmen Was the Cause
of Most of the Colonial Troubles— 1763-1773 194-200
CHAPTER XXVI.
Obstructive Legislation and Excessive Taxation Breed Discontent — New Eng-
land Settlers Rise in Rebellion — Detroit Under Lieut. -Gov. Henry Hamil-
ton Becomes a Fire in the Rear — The " Great Hairbuyer" and His Corrupt
Rule— 1773-1775 .' 201-203
CHAPTER XXVII.
Hamilton Arms the Indians and Sets Them on the Ohio Settlers — Human Scalps
Bring £1 Each in the Detroit Commandant's Office — Philip Dejean, Hamil-
ton's Unscrupulous " Chief Justice "—1776-1777 204-212
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Gen. George Rogers Clark Captures Vmcennes and Other British Posts — Ham-
ilton Goes to Recover Them and is Captured — He Narrowly Escapes Hang-
ing at the Hands of the Colonists— 1778-1779... 212-219
CHAPTER XXIX.
How the Fort and Settlement Looked During the Revolutionary War — Charac-
ter of Houses— Costumes of the Various People — Drunken Indians and Re-
turning Raiders with Reeking Scalps and Live Prisoners to Torture on the
Common 220-226
CHAPTER XXX.
Shocking Butchery of Ohio Settlers by the British Indians — A Bill of Lading for
a Shipment of 954 Human Scalps, Which Tell a Gruesome Story — Reprisals
by the Settlers — Shameless Butcher}' of the Moravian Indians 227-23
CHAPTER XXXI.
Martyrdom of Colonel Crawford — He is Burned at the Stake by the Indians —
Simon Girty, the Renegade, Scoffs at His Agonies— Dr. Knight's Story of
the Tortures 233-238
CHAPTER XXXn.
Great Britain's Motives for Ignoring the Treaty of Peace — Determined to Hold
the Border Posts from Which to Renew the War on the Colonists — Why
They Held Detroit Unj ustly for Thirteen Years 238-244
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Indian Wars Following the Revolution — British Influence Causes Constant Vio-
lations of Treaties — Disastrous Campaigns of Gen. Josiah Harmar and Gen.
Arthur St. Clair— Mad Anthony Wayne Wins a Signal Victory— 1784-1792
.244-251
CHAPTER XXXIV.
The British Evacuate Detroit, July 11, 1796— The Victory of General Wayne is
Followed by the Jay Treaty — Death of General Wayne — The Northwest
Territory Created before Possession was Secured by the Americans — Win-
throp Sargent Gives the Name of Wayne County to a Great Territory ...251-255
CHAPTER XXXV.
Isaac Weld's Description of Detroit in 1796 — Two-thirds of the Residents are
French — Twelve Trading Vessels Carry its Commerce — Jacob Burnett, Solo-
mon Sibley and other Notables Arrive 255-260
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Early Ordinances of the New American Town — First Charter Issued in 1802 —
Extraordinary Precautions against Fire — The First Fire Department and
its Divisions of Work — A Public Market Established on the River Front — A
One-Man Police Force 260-268
CHAPTER XXXVII.
Rule of the Governor and Judges — Schemes of the Rapacious Land-Grabbers —
John Askin and Others Attempt to Get Possession of 20,000,000 Acres by
Bribing Congressman — Their Schemes Exposed — Governor Hull and Judge
Woodward 269-2
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
Great Fire of 1805 — The Entire Town Destroyed on June 11 — Three Hundred
Families Left Homeless— Relief Measures and Grant of the 10,000 Acres —
Judge "Woodward La^'s out a New City on the Scale of Paris— The Territorial
Militia ---- - 276-284
CHAPTER XXXIX.
The Bank of Detroit — A Well Planned Swindle which Gave the Promoters
Riches and the People of Michigan a Bad Reputation — A Large Amount
of Worthless Bills Circulated but Never Redeemed — Early Grand Juries —
1806-1808 - - - 284-293
CHAPTER XL.
Tecumseh and the Prophet Plan to Drive the Americans out of the West — They
Rouse the Indians to .Hostility, Intending to Unite with the British — Gen-
eral Harrison Defeats Them at the Battle of Tippacanoe, November 7,
1811--.. 293-300
CHAPTER XLI.
Causes Leading Up to the War of 1812 — Great Britain Persists in Impressing
American Sailors — Attempts to Cripple the American Navy — Every Nation
Against the United States — Affair of the Chesapeake and the Leopard — The
Embargo Act 301-305
CHAPTER XLII.
War Declared July 19, 1812— Condition of the Northern Border— The British
Enlist the Indians — Michigan Militia Called Out — Detroit Volunteers In-
vade Canada to Capture Maiden, but are Recalled by General Hull — De-
troit Surrendered with a Superior Force of Men and a Large Quantity of
Stores 306-323
CHAPTER XLIII.
Settlers and Garrison of Fort Dearborn (Chicago) Massacred by Indians — Gen-
eral Harrison Rescues the Garrison at Fort Wayne — General Hull Con-
victed of Cowardice and Incompetence and Sentenced to be Shot — Sentence
Suspended 323-329
CHAPTER XLIV.
Massacre of Winchesters's Troops at the River Raisin — Victims of an Incompe-
tent Commander and a Treacherous Enemy — Humane Residents of Maiden
Ransom Prisoners from the Indians . . 329-333
xii
CHAPTER XLV.
The Campaign in Northern Ohio — Gallant Defenses Made by Gen. William H.
Harrison and Maj. George Croghan — Oliver Hazard Perry Plans to Control
Lake Erie— Builds a Fleet of Ships at Erie 333-337
CHAPTER XLVI.
The Battle of Lake Erie — Fortune Favored the Heaviest Artillery — The Surren-
der of the British Fleet Leaves the Lakes in Possession of the Americans —
Harrison Prepares to Invade Canada .- - 338-343
CHAPTER XLVH.
Proctor Runs Away from Maiden — Tecumseh Taunts Him with Cowardice —
The British Evacuate Detroit, Carrying Away the Cannon and Military
Stores— Battle of the Thames— Death of Tecumseh— Flight of Proctor... 344-349
CHAPTER XLVni. ^
Detroit Occupied by the American Army — They Build a Cantonment of Log
Huts West of Fort Lernoult — Indians Murder Several Residents — General
Cass Drives the Indians Away from Detroit... 349-355
CHAPTER XLIX.
Detroit Begins to Develop under the Peace of 1815 — Road Building Begun — The
First Steamboat Arrives, August 27, 1818 — Sedate Men Lay Aside Their
Dignity and Indulge in a Frolic — Founding of Pontiac of 1819 355-360
CHAPTER L.
Michigan's First Delegate to Congress — Politics were Politics Even in the Olden
Time— Father Gabriel Richard Locked up in Jail to Prevent His Candidacy
— The French Residents Give Him a Plurality over his Unscrupulous Com-
petitors.... 360-365
CHAPTER LI.
Detroit under a new Regime — The Territorial Ordinance of 1823 Puts an End to
the Autocratic Sway of the Governor and Judges — The Ferry Established
by Capt. John Burtis— The Erie Canal Opened in 1825- Stephen G. Sim-
mons Hanged at Detroit for Murder 866-372
CHAPTER LII.
Michigan's Early Supreme Judges — David Irvin, George Morell and Ross Wilkins
— William Woodbridge and His Father-in-law, Jonathan Trumbull — Dr.
Douglass Houghton and Henry R. Schoolcraft Explore the Upper Penin-
sula and the Sources of the Mississippi ..373-379
CHAPTER LIII.
Cholera Epidemics of Early Days — The Steamer Henry Clay Brought the In-
fection in 1832— In 1834 it Returned to Claim Over 700 Victims— Heroic
Labors of Father Gabriel Richard and Martin Kundig— 1833-1834 380-386
CHAPTER LIV.
Story of the Toledo War — A Serio-Comic Dispute Which Promised to End in a
War between Ohio and Michigan — Michigan Prepares for Statehood —
Lucius Lyon and John Norvell the First Senators Elected by the Legis-
lature - -..387-397
CHAPTER LV.
Dr. Douglass Houghton Begins the First Geological Survey of the State — He
Reveals Some of the Vast Resources — The Canadian Rebellion — Causes
Which Led to the Uprising of an Oppressed People — Exciting Times at
Detroit, Windsor and Sandwich... 397-404
CHAPTER LVI.
The Campaign of 1840 — How a Word of Ridicule against General Harrison, the
Pioneer Soldier, Set the Country on Fire with Political Zeal — The Creation
of the Republican Party — Conceived in the Office of the Detroit Tribune, It
Was Born "Under the Oaks at Jackson".. 404-409
CHAPTER LVH.
Constitution of 1850 — It Is an Example of the Folly of Attempting to Legislate
too far in Advance of the Times — It Contains a Few Excellent Provisions in
Advance of the Constitution of 1835 and a Lot of Detrimental Restric-
tions 409-413
CHAPTER LVIII.
The Famous Railroad Conspiracy — First Encounter of Michiganders with a
"Soulless Corporation" — High-handed Measures Provoke the People to
Anarchy— They Burn the Michigan Central Railroad Depot at Detroit,
September 19, 1850 — Thirty- eight Farmers Arrested for the Crime and a
Number are Severely Punished .414-418
CHAPTER LIX.
Detroit During the War of the Rebellion — How the People of the North Allowed
Themselves to be Disarmed — Detroit Becomes the Rendezvous for Michigan
Patriots and a Rallying Point for Advocates of Dishonor and Treason —
Wild Scenes on the Campus Martius ^ 418-430
CHAPTER LX.
Money, Banks and Finances — Governor Mason's Zeal Leads Him into Disastrous
Financiering — Michigan Mulcted for Millions in Early Railroad Building —
How Fraudulent Banks Kept Afloat in Spite of the Inspectors — The Country
Flooded with Wildcat Money 431-442
CHAPTER LXI.
The Detroit Metropolitan Police Department — Constables, Deputy-Sheriffs and
Marshals Preserved the Peace of the Community for 165 Years — The Police
Department Has Developed Since 1865 — Detroit House of Correction 443-446
CHAPTER LXII.
History of the Detroit Waterworks — The River Always the Chief Source of Sup-
ply— Delivery to the Consumer First Accomplished in Buckets; then in
Pony Carts; then in Hollow Tamarack Logs, and Finally in Huge Iron Mains
— Migration of the Pumping Stations 446-450
CHAPTER LXin.
Development of the Gas Industry and the Municipal Lighting Plant — From Pine
Knots and Tallow Dips to Welsbach and Edison Burners — Bitter Competi-
tion between Rival Companies in Gas and Electric Lighting 450-455
CHAPTER LXIV.
Cemeteries of Two Centuries in Detroit — The Heart of the City Built on the
Bones of a Forgotten Population — History of the Most Notable Graveyards
— Thousands Lie in Unmarked Graves Beneath Public Streets and Build-
ings 455-459
CHAPTER LXV.
Parks, Boulevards and Breathing Places Maintained for the People — History
of Belle Isle and its Various Owners — Palmer, Grand Circus, Clark and
Other Valuable Lands Devoted to Public Use— The Older Parks Were Once
Swamp Holes and Dumping Grounds 459-463
CHAPTER LXVI.
The City and County Poor Department — Detroit was Slow in Providing for the
Poor — The Cholera Epidemic Filled the Town with Helpless Orphans —
Father Kundig's Herculean Labors — Purchase of the Black Horse Tavern
Site— Horrors of the old Crazy House. 463-467
CHAPTER LXVII.
History of the Detroit Fire Department — Fierce Rivalry of the Early Volunteer
Companies — The Men of the Hand Engines Surrender to the Steam Engines
—Notable Fires of the Past Century 468-479
CHAPTER LXVIII.
The Public Library and the Art Museum— The County Officials Withhold the
Library Funds for Several Years and Convert Them to Other Uses — Public
Spirited Citizens Contribute Liberally to Establish an Art Museum in De-
troit—Present Status of the Two Institutions 479-484
CHAPTER LXIX.
Public Sewers and Pavements — Developed from Open Ditches and Corduroy
Roads — There are Now 512 Miles of Paved Streets and Nearly as Many
Miles of Sewers 485-489
CHAPTER LXX.
Freemasonry and Other Secret Benevolent Societies — Military Lodges in the
Early Days of British Rule — The Morgan Excitement- -Odd Fellowship in
Detroit 489-492
CHAPTER LXXI.
Medical Colleges and Hospitals — Detroit College of Medicine and Harper Hos-
pial Developed Together — Michigan College of Medicine and Emergency
Hospital — Charitable Gifts of Walter Harper and Ann, "Nancy," Martin —
Grace Hospital Founded and Endowed by John S. Newberry and James
McMillan 493-498
CHAPTER LXXH.
The Era of Railroad Building in Michigan — How Detroit Obtained Communi-
cation with the Other Centers of Population — The Campus Martins was
Once the Railway Terminal— Advent of Canadian and Ohio Lines Opening
the Way to the Atlantic Seaboard — James F. Joy a Leading Spirit 499-506
CHAPTER LXXin.
The Y. M. C. A. and its Early Struggles for Existence — Founding of the Board
of Trade — The Chamber of Commerce and its Troublous Career .506-509
CHAPTER LXXIV.
The University of Michigan — The Pedantry of Judge Woodward — How its Rich
Endowment was Wasted — The Early Schools of Detroit — The Board of Ed-
ucation 509-517
CHAPTER LXXV.
Churches and Religious Societies in Detroit — Ste. Anne's Was the Only Church
During the First Century of the City's History — The Moravians in 1781-82—
Protestant Missionaries Visit Detroit in 1800 — Founding of the Early
Churches — Edifices of the Various Churches 517-535
CHAPTER LXXVI.
The Modern Newspapers of Detroit — The Tribune and the Detroit Free Press
Rival Claimants for the Honors of Seniority — Beginnings of the Four Dailies
Now in Existence — The Gazette and Other Journals of the Past — List of
the Papers and Periodicals now Published in the City 536-542
CHAPTER LXXVII.
History of Detroit's Street Railways — First Franchise Granted in 1862 — Short
Lines Prove Losing Ventures — Gradual Combination of Lines and Exten-
sions of Service — The Citizens' Company's Claims of Monopolistic Rights —
The Contest between Mayor Hazen S. Pingree and the Street Railway Com-
panies 542-555
CHAPTER LXXVni.
Telegraph and Telephone Communication — How the Numerous Short Telegraph
Lines were Combined into Two Great Systems, Affording Communication
with All Parts of the World — Telephone Lines Developed into General Com-
munication 555-559
CHAPTER LXXIX.
Detroit's Marine Interests on the Great Lakes — How the Great Fleet of Lake
Carriers Succeeded the Birch Bark Canoes of the Voyageurs and Fur Traders
— It Was the Three Small Vessels, Beaver, Gladwin and Bear, Which Saved
Detroiters from Starvation During the Siege of 1763 560-566
CHAPTER LXXX.
Detroit's Public Buildings, Commercial Houses and Private Residences — The
City Hall— The New County Building— The Federal Building and Other
Costly Structures 566-573
xvii
CHAPTER LXXXI.
History of the Small-Pox Epidemics Which Have Visited the City — Struggle of
the Vaccination Against Popular Prejudice — Ravages of the Disease at Va-
rious Times Among the Poor in Densely Populated Portions of the City. 573-577
CHAPTER LXXXII.
Hotels and Taverns of the Past and Present — The Old Mansion House — Ben.
Wood worth's Steamboat Hotel — The Michigan Exchange, and Many Others
—Personality of the Old-Time Proprietors 577-587
CHAPTER LXXXni.
Detroit Militia Organizations, Past and Present — Sheriffs of Wayne County
Since 1796 587-591
CHAPTER LXXXIV.
Amusements, Recreations and Sports — Music and Drama — Detroit Theatres
Since 1798 — Horse Racing, Rowing. Cricket, Athletics, Yachting, Baseball,
Bicycling and Social Organizations ..591-617
CHAPTER LXXXV.
Mayors and Common Council of the City ef Detroit 617-621
CHAPTER LXXXVI.
Detroit as a Modern Commercial City .622-629
BIOGRAPHICAL ....631-872
PERSONAL REFERENCES 1-276, Part II
INDEX.
GENERAL 277-304
BIOGRAPHICAL ....305-306
PERSONAL REFERENCES.... 307-311
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Alger, Russell A.,.-. facing 40
Anderson, William K., facing 376
Andrews, Myron H., M. D., ..facing 628
Apel, Franz A., facing 636
Armstrong, Oscar S..M. D.,.. facing 638
Barbour, Edwin S facing 200
Barbour, George H facing 288
Baumgartner, F. J-. Rev., facing 400
Baxter, William H., facing 643
Beal, Francis R facing 644
Bennett, William C, facing 460
Berry, Thomas, facing 240
Bielman, Charles F facing 648
Bishop, Jerome H., facing 650
Blackburn, Joel S., M. D., ...facing 508
Bradley. Herbert, facing 652
Brodhead, Thornton F., Col., facing 216
Brooks, David W. , facing 464
Buncher, Charles, facing 272
Burroughs, Samuel Whiteside, facing 657
Campbell, Henry M facing 352
Campbell, James V. , .facing 76
Carstens, J. Henry, M. D facing 663
Case, George F., facing 665
Casgrain, Charles W., facing 666
Catlin, George B , facing 872
Chandler, Zachariah, facing 88
Cheever, Henry M., facing 668
Chittenden, William J.. facing 579
Clark, Joseph H. , facing 592
Chppert, Frederick J., M. D., facing 672
Conely, Edwin F., Col., facing 144
Connor, Leartus, M. D., facing 224
Cook, James P., facing 677
Crawford, Samuel, facing 600
Currie, Cameron, facing 368
Currie, George E., facing 679
Davies, Thomas F., Rt. Rev., facing 527
Davis, Edgar A. , facing 683
Dempsey, Morgan J. P., Rev., facing 684
Detroit in 1708, facing 56
Dick, John A. , facing 544
Dickinson, Don M., facing 168
Dickinson, Julius C, M. D., ..facing 408
Dingwall, George, ..facing 456
Doherty, James G., Rev facing 689
Doman, Robert F. M., Rev., .facing 691
Ducharme, Charles, facing 64
Du Charme, Charles A., facing 312
Duffield. Samuel P., M. D.,... facing 493
Du Pont, Antoine B., facing 696
Dwyer, Jeremiah, facing 256
Farrand, Jacob S. , facing 100
Flowers, Charles, facing 700
Foley, John S., Rt. Rev., facing 517
Fox, William D., .facmg 702
Eraser, Elisha A facing 604
Gott, Edward A., facing 706
Graham, James, facing 548
Greusel, John, facing 708
Griffith, Armond H., facing 484
Gue, Arthur E.. M. D.,.. facing 711
Guelich, Otto E. C facing 608
Haass, Charles F. W., Rev., ..facing 713
Hahn, Jacob H. , facing 594
Haigh, Henry A., ..facing 716
Hamblen, Joseph G. , . . . facing 416
Hamlen, William I., M. D.,. facing 552
Hanna, Valentine C, Lieut. -
Col. , facing 856
Harsha, Walter S., facing 719
Hayes, Clarence M., facing 720
Hendrie, George, ...facing 721
Henry, Albert M., facing 344
Hinsdale, NehemiahC. , facing 725
Hodges, Henry C.,. facing 152
Holmes, William L., facing 612
Humphrey, Ira G. , facing 731
Hunt, Wellington Q., facmg 732
Hutchins, Jere C , .facing 556
Ives, Percy, facing 734
Janes, Oscar A., Col., facing 424
Johnson, S. Olin, .. facing 736
Joslyn, Charles D., ..facing 738
Joy, James F. , facing 52
Jupp, William C, facing 74 i
Keep, William J., facing 616
Kelly, Ronald, facing 744
Kessler, William H.,. facing 746
Knight, Stephen H., facing 560
Lang, Otto, M. D.,.. facing
Lathrop, Joseph, sn, D.D.S... facing
Lawrence, George C. , facing
Ledbeter, Thomas, facing
Leggett, John W.,... .facing
Lennane, John, . . facing
LeSeure, Oscar, M. D., facing
Lewis, Alexander, facing
Livingstone, William, jr., facing
Lodge, Frank T., facing
Look, William facing
Lothrop, George V. N., facing
Lothrop. Henry B., Gen., facing
McGregor, John, .facing
McLeod, Alexander L , facing
McMillan, James, facing
McMillan, William C, facing
McVittie, Alexander, facing
Marschner, Ferdinand W., ...facing
Martindale, Wales C. , facing
Marxhausen, August, facing
Maybury, William C.,... facing
Mayhew, David P., facing
Mehan, John D., facing
Meigs, Alfred E., facing
Mills, Merrill B. , facing
Mills, ]Merrill L, facing
Moore, George William, facing
Mulheron, John J., M.D., facing
Newcomb, Cyrenius A., facing
Ninde, William X., Rev., facing
Owen, Orville W., M. D., facing
Paine, George H., facing
Palmer, Thomas W. , facing
Parker, Aaron A. , facing
Parker, Dayton, M. D., facing
Parker, Ralzemond A. , facing
Patterson, John E. , facing
Pingree, Hazen S.,... facing
Price, Orrin J., facing
Ouinby, William E., facing
Radford, George W.,.. facing
Raymond, Alexander B. , facing
472
749
432
751
752
753
564
136
539
756
759
28
392
572
7G3
124
769
515
540
620
773
776
248
112
328
782
320
523
786
448
16
2G4
468
796
624
4
804
537
384
807
Rich, John T facing 160
Rogers, Fordyce H., facing 360
Ross, Robert B.,... Frontispiece
Safford, Robert C, facing 811
Savage, James, Rev.,.. .facing 813
Schmid, John A., facing 814
Scripps, James E.,. facing 538
Shaw, John T., facing 336
Slocum, EllioUT.,... ...facing 176
Smedley, John H facing 818
Smith, Hamilton E., M. D.,.. facing 576
Snow, Edwards., M. D., ....facing 820
Snow, Herbert M. , facing 822
Snow, Frank E facing 488
Sprague, William C, facing 480
Springer, Oscar M., facing 584
Stacey, William, facing 825
Standish, James D., facing 184
Starkweather, George A , facing 829
Stevenson, Elliott G., ..facing 280
Stewart, G. Duffield, M. D.,.. facing 832
Stoepel, Frederick C, ..facing 208
Tarsnev, Timothy E., facing 835
Taylor,' Elisha, .facing 232
Taylor, Joseph, facing 839
Tefft, William H., facing 192
Thurber, Henry T., facing 304
Tuttle, Jonathan B., facing 843
Van Alstyne, John S., facing 844
Van Dyke, Ernest, Rev., facing 847
Wadsworth, Thomas A. , facing 588
Wagstaff, Denman S. , Col., ..facing 848
Warner, Carlos E., facing 504
Weadock, Thomas A. E., facing 452
Wilkins, Charles T., facing 853
Wilkinson, Albert H., facing 512
Williams, Nathan G., facing 855
Wilson, William H., Capt.,... facing 859
Wormer, C. C, 160, Part H
Wurzer, Carl facing 860
Yawkey, William C, .facing 445
Yearick, Cincero R., ..facing 860
LANDMARKS OF DETROIT.
CHAPTER I.
The Coming of Cadillac — He is Accompanied by Fifty Soldiers, Fifty Civilians
and One Hundred Algonquin Indians — Selects Detroit as the Most Commanding
Position on the Straits.
On the 23d day of July, 1701, late in the afternoon, when the Detroit
River gleamed like molten gold under the hot summer sun, a fleet of
birch bark canoes suddenly appeared off the head of Belle Isle, and,
propelled swiftly by the sturdy arms of the rowers, bore rapidly down
with the current in the direction of the high banks and the wooded
slopes along the western shore. Neither friend nor foe came forth to
greet the intrepid travelers, who thus arrived unheralded, and who
were soon to bring to a welcome termination one of those remarkable
journeys, at once the necessity and the extremity of pioneer days in
this great northwestern country, of which Detroit was the center and
most important post during a period of one hundred and fifty years.
The route of these weary travelers had led by baffling stages for sev-
eral hundred leagues through tortuous streams and primeval forests,
whose wild grandeur was intensified by vast solitude and whose dangers
in the way of marauding bands of murderous red skins, untried rapids
in unknown rivers, and the fierce assaults of wild animals, might well
appall the stoutest hearts. Thence the course lay along the waters of
the mighty inland seas, whose limits, whose storms and whose reefs
and shoals were to these hardy invaders of the wilderness alike un-
known. Encamped under the stars by night and guided by friendly
voyageurs by day, the little band had come at last almost to their long
journey's end; and never was time more auspicious to bid a welcome.
History records that the newcomers entered Detroit River upon a day
splendid and golden, like their hopes of future fortune, and that
never did the green groves edging the shores present a more superb
appearance, being as they were absolutely guiltless of the desecrating
contact of the hand of civilized man, his rude destroying axe, or his
leveling plow, and being furthermore in the ver> height of summer's
gayest livery of vivid green.
The sight the travelers gained of their future home was inspiring,
and yet the groves edging the shores where lisped the peaceful blue
river were merely the border of a mighty wilderness. Birds of rare
plumage caroled forth a welcome, and the breezes whispered of peace
and rest. Afar, rising here and there to the bright blue skies, soft as
those of sunny southern France, curled an occasional thin column of
smoke, marking the camp fire of some roving band of Indians; but no
human sound awoke the echoes of the slumbering shores of the wide
strait, nor disturbed the intense serenity of the peaceful groves. Had
there been any Indians at this point on either side of the silent stream,
whose currents ever ran toward the mighty ocean, a thousand miles
away, they could have seen a fleet of bark canoes, whose occupants
were clad with unconventional informality, for full clothing was not de-
sirable on that warm July day. There were twenty-five large canoes,
occupied by one hundred white men, and they were led by an escort of
smaller craft propelled by one hundred Algonquin Indians. History
and tradition aver that no human being saw from the shore the ap-
proaching flotilla at this point. The canoes were capacious crafts,
each being about twenty-five feet in length and having a beam of six
feet ; their capacity was about two tons each.
The uniforms of the fifty soldiers (for such indeed was the official
station of half the travelers) were those of the period, common to the
army of France ; dark blue coats with white facings, the garments being
fastened at the neck and cut away tapering toward the bottom, with
white narrow slashes of about three inches in length, which defined
and covered the unused button hole; diagonally across from shoulder
to hip were baldrics of white ; and knee breeches and leggings of the
same color completed the decorations of their uniforms. Some of the
troopers, with a touch of that precision in dress that has ever been a
characteristic of the French nation, even retained the white powder on
their wigs, despite the fatiguing voyage on which negligence of toilet
would be entirely excusable. All the soldiers wore the famous three-
cornered chapeau of felt or cloth, surmounted with three feathers.
The three officers wore substantially the same uniform, the only differ-
ence being- in the texture of the cloth, and an occasional ornament in
the shape of embroidery on the hat and coat. However, it is not to be
supposed that a canoe voyage of forty- eight days, with exposure to sun
and rain and with camping in primeval forests at night, had not made
sad havoc with military toilets. Nor could it be expected, therefore,
that these half hundred soldiers could have passed a dress parade in-
spection at the hands of some military martinet. Be that as it may,
neither privations nor dangers had dimmed the lustre of the proud flag
of France, which was flaunted to the breezes' caress at the stern of the
canoe of the expedition's leader — a field of white with three golden
fleurs de lis on a blue shield. From several of the canoes arose the in-
spiring strains of martial music, the drum and ear-piercing fife. Be-
sides the soldiers there was an equal number of emigrants, so that the
expedition numbered one hundred in all. These emigrants were agri-
culturists and artisans.
In the first canoe sat the Chevalier Cadillac, leader of the expedition,
holding a small telescope in his hand with which he frequently sur-
veyed the landscape. He was a man forty three years of age, of dis-
tinguished mien, with the dark complexion of the south of France, for
he was a Gascon ; his eyes were bright and piercing and his expression
denoted courage, persistency and buoyant spirits. His face bore traces
of the battle of life, of conflict with opposing forces and of exposure to
the elements. As sailor, soldier, explorer and statesman, he had al-
ready made many pages of French history. Such was Antoine Laumet
de La Mothe Cadillac, Lord of Dcnaquec and Mt. Desert, Knight of
the Royal and Military order of St. Louis, and for five years command-
ant of the post of Michilimackinac. He surveyed with restless eyes
the thickly wooded shores, seeking a convenient spot for disembarking.
Every available spot for the site of a military post was carefully ob-
served. Cadillac wanted the most commanding situation on the river;
a place where the cannon of the future post could defend the stream and
keep the gateway of the lakes against all the enemies of France. The
fleet passed down the stream to the mouth of the river. When passing
Grosse Isle the commander thought of founding his post on that island,
because Paris was originally founded on the Isle de Paris, but realized
that such a location would make it difficult to transport heavy merchan-
dise, wood and the other necessaries of life from the main land, and
that at times the running ice would make it impossible to use the frail
bark canoes for outside communication. They camped on Grosse Isle
that night, and next morning the voyagers proceeded up the stream
again, keeping time to their boat song with the strong sweep of their
paddles. In the blazing heat of the afternoon they came again to the
high terraces on the north side of the river, about two and one half
miles below what is now Belle Isle. Cadillac's canoe was pointed toward
the beach and all the rest of the flotilla turned likewise, the men setting
up a rousing cheer.
The long voyage was over. It had started forty nine days before, on
June 5, from La Chine, on the St. Lawrence, a short distance above
Montreal. Entering the Ottawa River the travelers had threaded the
windings of that stream for more than three hundred leagues, making
upward of thirty portages Finally the party reached the nearest
point to Lake Nippissing, where the last and most fatiguing portage
was effected to that body of water. The remainder of the route was
down French River to Lake Huron; down the lake to the head of
tlie straits, where Duluth in 1687 had built a fort which was burned
down two years later; through the St. Clair River and Lake and
thence on to the Detroit River, a land and water journey of over a
thousand miles.
The canoes were drawn up on the beach and the provisions, tools and
stores taken out; the latter included a small brass cannon. Camp fires
were lighted and tents pitched, and the evening meal discussed. The
two priests led in a vesper service of song; soon the shades of night
fell on the unwonted scene, and the travelers laid down to well earned
repose. Next day, after morning mass in the woodland, Cadillac made
proclamation that the land and the waters were the property of his
majesty, Louis XIV. The building of log cabins for the settlers com-
menced and on the following day the work of erecting a church was
begun, the edifice being dedicated to Ste. Anne, for it was the day on
which that holy woman died. The commander also laid out a quad-
rangle for a fort, which inclosed about two hundred feet on each side,
situated between Griswold street, Jefferson avenue, Shelby street and
the river. The work was prosecuted with diligence in order that the
fort should furnish immediate command of the strait and the opposite
shore, and also because Cadillac knew that the winters were severe and
good shelter was an absolute necessity. The new settlement was close
to the hunting and trapping grounds of the blood-thirsty Iroquois, who
were very changeable in their likes and dislikes, and so numerous that
the wiping out of an inadequately protected outpost was for them an
easy undertaking. In a few days the whole space of one arpent square
was inclosed by a substantial stockade, consisting of oak pickets fifteen
feet in length sunk in the ground to a depth of three feet. There was
a gentle slope of about forty paces to the river which formed a very
desirable glacis. The best authority has it that Cadillac's fortified vil-
lage had its southeast corner on the south side of Jefferson avenue, about
where the Palms block now stands. Its northern wall reached westward
to a point about thirty feet west of Shelby street. It was bounded on
the west by a line running south from the last named point to the
river bank, which was then a bluff nearly forty feet high. The south
wall ran along this bluff and the maps show that the stockade was
laid out on the cardinal points of the compass. Inside the stockade
there was a clear space of twelve feet, so that its defenders could
quickly assemble at any threatened point of danger. The picket wall
was pierced for musketry and there were bastions on each corner.
And thus Cadillac founded Detroit!
While the founder of the city was threading the tortuous windings
of the Ottawa, on his way to Detroit, the Iroquois held a council with
the British authorities of New York, and as a result they conveyed to
King William III, of England, all their claims to lands in the west in-
cluding the Straits of Detroit, which they called Tjeuchsaghronde
(Teuscha Gronde). This was done to exhibit their resentment against
the claim of Frontenac, the French governor, who answered their pro-
test against erecting a post and fort on the Detroit or straits, by say-
ing that the land belonged to his master the king of France. The con-
veyance was made on June 19, 1701, five days before Cadillac landed
at Detroit.
Robert Livingstone, an English trader at Orange (Albany), wanted
his government to establish a post on Detroit River in 1699, and he
made a careful report of the advantages he had noted when making a
trip to the upper lakes during the previous year.
CHAPTER II.
Early Discoveries in North America — Great Britain and Spain Held the Coast —
France Aimed to Secure Canada, the Lake Region, the Mississippi River and the
Unknown West.— 1492-1701.
In order to appreciate the sig-nificance of Cadillac's expedition and his
selection of Detroit as a landing place, it is well to briefly outline the
trend of colonization in America. Columbus landed at San Salvador
in 1492, and took possession of the Bahama Islands in the name of
Spain. In the course of his later voyages he slightly enlarged his
range of discovery and the consequent claims of the Spanish crown.
Within a few years other explorations added Mexico, Florida, Louisi-
ana, Peru, Chili, and other South American territory to Spain by claim
of discovery. Don Pedro Cabral, a Portuguese, laid claim to Brazil.
The British founded a settlement at Jamestown, Va., in 1607, which
was the pioneer colony in North America. The French, under Cham-
plain, founded Quebec in 1608; and the third colony, Manhattan Island
(New York), was settled by the Dutch in 1610, having been discovered
by Hendrick Hudson the previous year. English Puritans founded the
Massachusetts colony in 1620, while the British government laid claim
to the entire coast north of the Florida line to the St. Lawrence, by
virtue of the discoveries of John and Sebastian Cabot, who made land-
ings at various places between Greenland and the South Atlantic coast.
The fever of adventure and exploration possessed F'rance, Spain, Portu-
gal, England and Holland. While the Cabots were discovering Lab-
rador and Newfoundland, Vasco De Gama, a Portuguese navigator,
skirted the coast of Africa, rounded the Cape of Good Hope and reached
the East Indies, then the goal of all sea explorations at that time.
Gasper Cortereal followed the Cabots to Labrador and Newfoundland.
Italy, which did less exploring than any of the other nations, sent out
Amerigo Vespucci to America in 1499 ; he discovered nothing which had
not been discovered before his arrival, but by a strange irony of fate
this most inferior navigator who had yet crossed the Atlantic gave his
name to a continent four times larger than Europe and the new world
was thereafter known as America. While these explorations were pro-
gressing in the north, Ferdinand de Soto, the Spanish explorer, was
making a brilliant page in the history of America. In 1519 he accom-
panied Davila to Darien, where the latter was governor. De Soto ex-
plored the coast of South America; joined Pizarro in his conquest of
Peru; wrested Florida from the Indians in 1540; located a line of forts
reaching from Florida to the Mississippi, which he discovered at a
point not far from the borders of Tennessee. He died of swamp fever
on its banks in April, 1541, and was buried in a weighted canoe in the
middle of the great river in order that the savages might not mutilate
his body.
In spite of the sweeping claims of the English, and their evident in-
tention to crowd out all other claimants, the French were determined
to have a liberal slice of the territory of the new world. In 1506
Denis de Honfleur, a French navigator, entered the Gulf of St. Law-
rence, and twelve years later Baron De Lery established a convict
colony on the barren sands of Sable Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia,
This was presently abandoned on account of the severity of the climate,
and then John Verrazano made a superficial examination of the coast
south of the St. Lawrence, and claimed the whole territory for Francis
I of Frarce. So far the French explorations were unfruitful, be-
cause the discoverers found that they had been preceded by navigators
of other nations, Jacques Cartier visited the coast of Newfoundland
in 1534, and on his second voyage he sailed up the St. Lawrence to the
St. Charles River, near where Quebec was subsequently founded. He
traded with the Indians and explored the region about the river, but
finding no spices or precious metals he went back to France with dis-
couraging reports of the new country.
Although the ardor of the French was dampened, Cartier returned
in 1540 and visited what were to be the future sites of the cities of
Quebec and Montreal, the latter being at that time the Indian village
of Hochelaga. He built a small fort on the St. Charles, and then
French enterprise slumbered for half a century. In 1598 the Mar-
quis de la Roche added another failure to the long list of explora-
tions made by his countrymen, but a more competent explorer was
ready to carry the flag of France across the Atlantic, and plant it where
it should wave for more than half a century. Henry IV had a rather
poor opinion of the new world, but he granted the request of M. de
Chastes, governor of Dieppe, to found settlements in the St. Law-
rence region. De Chastes sent an able substitute in Samuel Cham-
plain, of Saintonge, who sailed from Honfleur, March 15, 1603, accom-
panied by M. Pont-Grave, a sailor of St. Malo. After three voyages
and nearly five years of exploration, Champlain in 1608 founded Que-
bec at the narrows of the St. Lawrence, because the place offered
unusual advantages for military defense. He organized a settlement
and took sides with the Algonquins against the Iroquois; discovered
Lake Champlain, the majestic sheet of water which bears his name,
and explored the valley of the Ottawa, which was the first highway of
his countrymen to the great lakes. He reached Lake Huron, em-
barked on its waters and after reaching the foot of the lake, made his
way back to the St. Lawrence. As to Champlain's route on his return
from Lake Huron to the St Lawrence, there is no reliable account.
Having made his journey to the foot of Lake Huron over the route
traversed by Cadillac ninety years later, it would appear that he would
very naturally have entered the St. Clair River, traversed Lake St,
Clair, and passing down Detroit River would have made his return to
the east by Lake Erie. Then by a portage around Niagara Falls he
could have reached Lake Ontario and eventually arrived at the future
site of Fort Frontenac, which was established on the site of Kingston,
Ont. It is a plausible theory, because he was a man who appreciated
the value of water communication, which was the only means of trans-
portation except the backs of the coureitrs de bois. The light birch
canoes could be propelled swiftly along with a considerable load of
furs or merchandise In the trackless wilderness no pedestrian, except
a trained Indian runner, could equal them as a means of communica-
tion, and they were beyond competition as carriers for the early com-
merce of New France In spite of this reasonable conclusion and the
subsequent claims of Governor Denonville in support of it, there is no
evidence to prove the discovery. Champlain was spying out the new
country for the purpose of making France the mistress of the north-
western region, which as yet was open to the undisputed claim of the
French crown. Having such a purpose in view he would naturally
have made a careful report of the most desirable route for reaching
the upper lake region. He could hardly have failed to appreciate the
beauty of the straits and their importance to future commerce, and
among his papers describing his discoveries some reference should
have been found in regard to the two rivers. Lake St. Clair, and of his
voyage on Lake Erie. Thus theory and reason would apparently have
led the explorer to follow the outlet of Lake Hiiron as far as possible,
upon the supposition that he had reached the head waters of the St.
Lawrence River; but had he done so he would naturally have made an
enthusiastic report of his discoveries.
The establishment of the colony of New France was due principally
to the efforts of Champlain. In 1620 the new world was made up of
New France (of which Acadia, afterward Nova Scotia, was a portion),
Newfoundland, New England, New Spain, New Brunswick and Nieu
Nederlands. Champlain was governor of New France from 1612 to
1629, and again from 1633 to 1635, and died in the latter year at Que-
bec. In 1628 France and England were at war. Charles I of England
gave Sir David Kirke, a French refugee, a commission for an expedi-
tion against Canada. He appeared before Quebec that summer with a
small fleet and demanded a surrender. Champlain made a show of
great strength by cunning deception, and Kirke abandoned the siege.
In 1629 he came again, and Champlain being in desperate straits from
lack of provisions, clothing and ammunition, was compelled to sur-
render all Canada to England. Champlain went to England a prisoner,
but was released. The treaty of St Germain en Laye restored Canada
to the French in 1632, and Champlain set out the next spring with three
ships and once more took command at Quebec. He began his ex-
plorations when he was thirty-three years of age and was one of the
most energetic as well as the most pious of explorers. He regarded
the Indians with due respect, and he believed the first duty of the state
was to convert them to Christianity. He was so strict in his integrity
that he never engaged in the fur trade, which offered great profit. It
was his ambition to make New France a thriving agricultural country,
instead of a trading territory for amassing riches, and as far as he was
able he filled the settlements with farmers and artisans, to whom seeds
and tools were provided. But he was greatly hampered by the com-
mercial companies who sought to make fortunes quickly. The De
Caens, uncle and nephew, who were granted a monopoly of the trade
of the colony, were turbulent and headstrong in their opposition to Cham-
plain's plans, and acted as though the savages were the legitimate prey
of the traders. Champlain saw their conduct was unbearable, and to
get rid of them he went back to France. As he expected, the settle-
ment' became too hot for the De Caens during his absence, and they
had to leave. At Lake Champlain, in the combined attacks of the Al-
gonquins and Hurons upon the Iroquois, Champlain fired his ancient
arquebus with deadly effect, and the sound of this firearm struck ter-
ror to the Iroquois, as they believed the weapon to be endowed with
supernatural qualities.
Contemporaneous with the explorations by agents of the government
were the labors of the Jesuit missionaries. Their heroic work of evan-
gelization among the savage tribes, penetrating to the remotest parts
of the wilderness, and carrying the cross wherever human beings could
be found, makes a story as fascinating as the most thrilling of ro-
mances. In September, 1641, Raymbault came to the Falls of St.
Mary, or Sault Ste. Marie, being the first Jesuit missionary who visited
that field, and the first among the Indian tribes of Michigan. Next
came Fathers Jacques and Bressani, Jean de Breboeuf, Chaumonot,
Claude Dablon, Mesnard, and others. In 1660 Mesnard, an aged priest,
reached a bay on the south shore of Lake Superior, where he estab-
lished-a mission and called it St. Theresa; the year following he ad-
vanced to the bay of Che-goi-me-gon. He was lost in the forest and
never seen again, but among the amulets of the Sioux were discovered
his breviary and cassock. Another French Jesuit was Father Claude
Allouez, who founded the Holy Spirit Mission at the bay of Che-goi-
me-gon, on the south shore of Lake Superior in 1665; also one ac Green
Bay; and also explored portions of Wisconsin and Illinois. M. Louis
Joliet was the first explorer who passed up Detroit River and left a
clear record of the trip. He made a trip from La Chine, above Mont-
real, to Niagara in July, 1669, and after visiting several Indian villages
of the Senecas in that vicinty, he set out with three canoes and a com-
pany of seven men for a voyage of discovery. In his party were
Fathers Galinee and Dollier, two priests of St. Sulpice ; they made the
trip in safety and passed up the Detroit River to Lake St. Clair early
in 1 670. Reports of their discoveries are but meager, but in the pre-
served correspondence of Father Gallinee there is an account of their
discovery of an idol on the banks of the Detroit River, about six
leagues from Lake Erie, at or near the site of the city of Detroit. It
was a carved stone image, which the Indians undertook to propitiate
by offerings, as it was supposed to exercise some influence over Lake
Erie. The pious fathers fell upon it with great zeal and destroyed it
at the expense of their hatchets, subsequently scattering the fragments
in the river. Their pious zeal destroyed what would have proved a
most interesting relic for the Detroit museum. A stone idol in this
part of the country would appear to be a relic of a race much older than
10
the Indians who occupied the territory when the French arrived — a race
whose relics are rare and highly esteemed by archaeologists. They
prepared the following certificate of discovery while on this trip and it
was filed in the archives of state at Quebec,
"We the undersigned, certify that we have seen the arms of the king of France
set up on the lands of the lake called Erie, at the foot of a cross with this inscription:
' The year of salvation 1669, Clement IX being seated in the chair of St Peter, Louis
XIV reignmg in France, Monsieur de Courcelles being governor of New France, and
Monsieur Talon being intendant for the king, two missionaries from the seminary
of Montreal having arrived at this place, accompanied by seven other Frenchmen,
who, the first of all the European nations, have witnessed on this lake, of which they
have taken possession in the name of their king as an unoccupied land, by setting up
his arms which they have affixed at the foot of this cross. In witness whereof we
have signed the present certificate:
" Francois Dollier, priest for the diocese of Nantes in Britanny;
" De Galinee, deacon of the diocese in Rennes in Britanny.' "
Father Marquette, another Jesuit missionary and explorer, was born
of an illustrious French family in 1637, came to Quebec in 1666, and
there became an Indian missionary. He learned and spoke the language
of the three great confederacies — Algonquins, Hurons and Iroquois,
and was esteemed the greatest of the Indian missionaries. In 1668 he
established a mission at St. Ignace and preached the gospel to 2,000
Indians. In 1673, at the request of Governor Frontenac, he and Joliet
began their wonderful exploration of the Mississippi, going within ten
days' journey of its mouth, and ascertaining that this stream flowed
into the Gulf of Mexico. Marquette also did much missionary work at
Green Bay and visited the Chicago River as early as 1674. On May
27, 1765, he died while traveling toward Green Bay, from the country
of the Miamis, and was buried in a sand dune near the present site of
Ludington, Mich., but subsequently his body was removed by faithful
Indians to the mission at St. Ignace, where it was buried under the
altar.
Records of early days in New France, and particularly those relating
to voyages of discovery, are but fragmentary, and in many cases there
is nothing but correspondence of officials, who had no active part in the
discoveries, to inform the later generations regarding the first visits of
the white man to portions of the Northwest. One reason for this is
that the explorers had to traverse dangerous waters where they fre-
quently were fortunate in escaping with their lives, and many papers
and journals were thus lost to the world. There are vague reports
11
concerning a trip of unknown voyageurs from the St. Lawrence River
to Lake Huron and Mackinac, by way of Lake Erie, as early as 1659,
but the names of the travelers are unknown and the report Is not au-
thentic. It is generally supposed that previous to the time of Joliet's
voyage cojcreurs de bois had visited Detroit, but they were usually illit-
erate fellows who were unable to leave a written record of their doings.
CHAPTER in.
The Great Explorers — Robert Cavalier de La Salle — The Cruise of Le Griffon —
Father Hennepin Visits the Upper Mississippi — Daniel Grisolon Duluth Builds a
Fort at the Foot of Lake Huron— 1669-1700.
Robert Cavalier de La Salle, a native of Normandie, and a fur trader,
was ever ambitious to extend the commercial supremacy of France.
After various explorations and a visit to France, he built the "Griffon,"
a ship of sixty tons, hewn out of green logs, on the shore of the Ni-
agara River, at the mouth of Cayuga Creek, above the great cataract.
La Salle was an ideal explorer. He had the genius for discovery, and
went to his destination by what he believed to be the most direct route,
regardless of obstacles. For years the early explorers had made their
way to the great lakes by the Ottawa River route, because the Indians
of Canada and those south of the St. Lawrence and the lakes, were al-
most constantly at war. The north shore of Lake Erie was avoided
by the early voyageurs because it was frequently overrun by Indian
scalp hunters from the Ohio region. Detroit was imdoubtedly an im-
portant Indian rendezvous, being a beaver region, but there is no au-
thentic record of any attempt to establish a trading post south of the
foot of Lake Huron in the seventeenth century. La Salle with his
small company of followers started out from Fort Frontenac resolved
to solve the riddle of the great lakes. He no doubt believed that not
only were they all connected together, but that they also communicated
with the Pacific Ocean, and his first chosen task was to explore the un-
known waters of Lake Erie in spite of the dangers which lay before
him. He began felling timber on the banks of Cayuga Creek, where
it empties into Niagara River. The Seneca Indians in that vicinity
12
showed some hostility against these operations, and to av^oid a collision
La Salle sent Sieur de La Motte, Father Hennepin, an interpreter named
Brassart, and three voyageurs, to Tagarondies, the capital of the Sen-
eca nation, which is located near the present town of Victor, Ontario
county, N.Y. The distance, nearly a hundred miles, was traversed on
snow shoes. The Indians said they would oppose a French settlement
at Cayuga Greek, but would not prevent the building of the vessel,
provided it went away and did not return. The work of building a
vessel of sixty tons capacity was steadily prosecuted, and it was
launched in April, 1679. The Griffon, or Le Griffon, named after the
heraldic figure of La Salle's coat of arms, then set sail for the upper
lakes, with La Salle, Henry Tonty, an Italian soldier of fortune,
Louis Hennepin, the fearless Franciscan friar, and Fathers Zenobe
and Riboirdier on board. They left on August 7, leaving Father
Melethon in charge of stores at Niagara, and after coasting along the
north shore of the lake turned up the Detroit River. The Griffon
reached Lake St. Clair August 12, which according to the church cal-
endar is Ste. Claire's day, and in honor of that pious maiden the ex-
plorer named the lake. Some writers and geographers, including
Judge A. B. Woodward, have stated that the river which bears this
name derived its title from Capt. Patrick Sinclair, an English officer
who built a fort where Pine River flows into it, at the site of the pres-
ent city of St. Clair. Some of the geographers have also made the
mistake of naming the river Sinclair in their maps. They were thir-
teen days reaching Lake Huron; they called at Mackinac Island; and at
the end of twenty-six days they landed on the shores of Green Bay.
Thus it happened that the Griffon with her crew of thirty four men,
was the first vessel to sail the western lakes, and was the forerunner of
the splendid fleet which now carries the commerce of an empire every
year. There was, previously, at least one vessel on Lake Ontario, but
the Griffon v^^as the first that showed the way of commerce through the
chain of the great lakes; and it also furnished the first marine tragedy.
La Salle's long absence from Montreal and the dangerous reputation of
the country into which he had plunged, convinced his friends and his
creditors that he had been lost in the wilderness. While they had be-
gun to divide up his personal property among themselves, La Salle was
loading the Griffon with furs and peltry at Green Bay. The vessel
sailed away with her cargo in charge of a crew of six men, intend-
ing to land at the launching place on Niagara River and forward the
13
cargo to Montreal. The bold explorer and his companions stood on
the beach of Lake Michigan and watched her tiny sail melt away in
the distance. From that hour no tidings were obtained of the missing
bark, its crew or its valuable freight. She is supposed to have foun-
dered in a September gale while crossing Lake Michigan, as she never
reached Mackinac Island.
As soon as the Griffon had departed with her cargo, which represented
all the fortune of the explorer, his restless spirit urged him forward to
new discoveries. He set out southward in canoes and followed the shore
of Lake Michigan to the mouth of the Chicago River; at length he
reached the mouth of the St. Joseph River, where Father Allouez had
founded a small mission among the Miamis. There he built Fort
Miami and waited in vain for the return of his ship. Again his spirit
rebelled at inaction and he pressed on with his little company, follow-
ing the river into the Kankakee marshes, and finally by portage reach-
ing the Illinois River. Down this stream they came upon a deserted
Indian village, and found stores of corn buried under the wigwams.
Loading some of this food supply into their canoes they proceeded to
Lake Peoria, an enlargement of the Illinois River. There they came
upon a friendly party of Illinois Indians and erected another fort. It
was evident that the ship Griffon had met with some mishap. Winter
was at hand and the handful of explorers were in a far wilderness with-
out supplies. In token of his discouraging position La Salle named
the fort Creve Coeur, or " Broken Heart." Even the desperate straits
which befell this expedition did not crush La Salle. Making his fol-
lowers as comfortable as possible at Creve Coeur he set out with three
companions to make the way back to Fort Frontenac on foot. It was
early in March ; snow covered the ground ; hungry wolves lurked in
the trackless forests; there were rivers to cross and vast swamps to
tread — but the three men with no other food than the chase afforded
them made the journey of 1,200 miles in safety. Arrived at Fort
Frontenac, La Salle learned that his friends and agents, supposing him
to be dead, had administered his estate by dividing among themselves
what his creditors had not seized. He set out again for Creve Coeur
with abundant stores, but on arriving there found that the Iroquois
had made a raid against the place, and after Tonty and his followers
had abandoned it to avoid a battle, burned it to the ground. It took
some time to collect his scattered followers from the wilderness. That
fall and winter of 1681 was spent in preparing for an expedition down
14
the Mississippi. Making an early start he arrived at the mouth of the
river in April, where he set up a wooden cross with an inscription
claiming the country for Louis XIV.
While La Salle was on his way to Frontenac, Father Hennepin, ac-
companied by Anthony Auguells and Michael Ako, boatmen, started
to explore the head waters of the Mississippi, but were soon captured
by a war party of Indians. They were taken up the river as far as St.
Anthony's Falls, which were named by Father Hennepin. Leaving
their canoes at the future site of Minneapolis, the Indians took their
captives up the St. Francis River far into the northern wilderness near
the head of Lake Superior. While they were captives in this territory
Duluth, accompanied by five French voyageurs, arrived at the village
and Father Hennepin and his two companions returned with them to
Montreal, making a journey of about 2,500 miles. They were six
months in the hands of their captors.
La Salle returned to France with glowing reports of his discoveries,
for like most other enthusiasts he had a vivid imagination with which
to embellish his facts. Louis XIV commissioned him with the duty of
building outposts along the Mississippi reaching northward so as to
hold the connection of the great valley with the lake region. La Salle
set out, filled with renewed enthusiasm. Three vessels and a force of
280 men departed from Rochefort to be guided by La Salle to the
mouth of the Mississippi, but from the very beginning of the enter-
prise there was trouble between the explorer and the senior captain of
the expedition, M. Beaujeu. Beaujeu was jealous of the leader and
either through treachery, or misfortune, the little squadron failed to
find the mouth of the great river. A norther came on and Beaujeu
refused to obey La Salle's instruction to work back along the northern
coast of the gulf. He proceeded to the Bay of Matagorda, on the coast
of Texas, and put the explorer ashore with 230 followers. In the
heavy sea that was running most of the supplies of the colonists were
lost in landing, and the ships sailed away, leaving them in an unknown
and desolate country almost without resources. La Salle attempted to
lead his followers by land to find the mouth of the Mississippi, but the
vast swamps and the intricate network of bayous proved most confus-
ing. Swamp fever rapidly thinned their ranks. Then an attempt was
made to find the river by the use of canoes. This too failed, and after
traversing innumerable bayous, each of which promised to be the
river, the expedition turned westward across the plains of Texas hoping
15
to find g-old In a short time the 230 men were reduced to thirty-
seven. Failing- to enforce discipline by gentleness and entreaty, La
Salle began to use harsh measures, and the company was soon in a
state of mutiny. Finally he set out from the valley of the Colorado
River, accompanied by his nephew, Moranget, and fifteen men, with
the purpose of reaching Canada. Two of the men, L'Archeveque and
Diihaut, quarreled with Moranget. While the latter lay asleep Litot,
the surgeon of the party, cleft his skull with an axe, after which several
of his followers were also killed as they slept. For fear of being called
to account for their crime, one of them shot La Salle dead. Such was
the end of the greatest explorer sent out by France to search out the
new world. His intelligent reasoning, his boldness of movement, his
ingenuity and invincible courage in surmounting difficulties in the face
of stupendous obstacles, stamp him as one of the greatest figures in
American history. It was to La Salle and Champlain that France
owed her possessions in America. Robert Cavalier de La Salle was a
Norman with all the characteristics of that people. He was large of
frame, restless in disposition and tormented by strong^ passions. Ad-
mitted to the Jesuit novitiate at the age of fifteen, he spent two years
under the discipline of Father Mouret, but after his novitiate and during
his probationary period his restless disposition proved unconquerable.
He went from place to place carrying on his studies and teaching. His
passions frequently led him into unseemly conduct. He pined for the
career of an adventurer, and on being refused permission to go to
Portugal he asked to be released from his vows. After eight years of
life in the order he was dismissed at his own request. His character
has been carefully portrayed by Father Camille Rochementiex, who
pictures him as a man of superb gifts of mind and body; a profound
scholar, skilled in the arts and sciences, but restless, taciturn and mo-
rose under restraint. When he came into a commanding position,
such as his talents merited, his uncurbed passions, and despotic dispo-
sition cost him the friendship of his followers, and were indirectly the
cause of his untimely end at the age of forty-three years.
Of the Jesuits, who sometimes conducted expeditions themselves, and
who almost invariably accompanied the expeditions of the French, it
may be said that they were loyal soldiers of the cross whose holy ardor
neither heat nor cold could diminish, hunger or torture daunt, or fear
of death divert from their sacred purpose. Their vows of chastity,
poverty and obedience, were rigorously observed and their self sacrific-
16
THOMAS W. PALMER.
ing devotion to God and the cause of religion made them the greatest
heroes of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
It will be seen that the explorers of various nations had practically
closed up the Atlantic coast with their claims. England, Holland and
Spain held the ocean front, and the latter country had rounded into the
Gulf of Mexico, and started up the Mississippi, besides penetrating to
Sante Fe, New Mexico, and over to the Pacific coast. France had entered a
wedge of territory at the mouth of the St. Lawrence and the scheme of
the government was to claim the region of Canada, the great lakes, the
Mississippi and Ohio valleys, and all territory which might be discov-
ered to the westward. Quebec and Montreal were the strongholds at
the head of river navigation and from that point the claim of France
was to be supported by a chain of forts; Fort Frontenac commanded
the foot of Lake Ontario, the fort at Michilimackinac was their station
for the upper lakes. Duluth built a fort, in 1687, at the foot of Lake
Huron, on the west side, where the upper portion of the city of Port
Huron, Mich., is now situated. It was first called Fort Detroit, but
was more generally styled Fort St. Joseph. The English and Iroquois
were about to move against it in great force in 1689, when Hontan
burned it rather than have it fall into their hands. It then became
apparent to the French that their chain of forts must be extended not
only through the Mississippi valley to the Gulf of Mexico, but that the
wonderful straits described by La Salle must be fortified to protect their
fur trade from the aggressions of the English and the Iroquois. All
the traffic of the lakes and their tributaries must come through these
straits, the rivers Detroit and St. Clair, and a strong fort, planted in a
commanding position, would keep the great seas of sweet water for
France. Cadillac, the shrewd and doughty Gascon, who was one of
the originators of this scheme, was chosen for that service, and the
forging of the most important link in the chain of colonization was en-
trusted to his hands. The upbuilding of this splendid scheme of con-
quest and colonization was ably planned and faithfully executed, so
that finally the interior of the country from Quebec to the headwaters
of the Mississippi, and from thence to the Gulf of Mexico, belonged to
France.
Through the neglect of the home government to provide for the
maintenance of the colonies, the settlements languished as mere trad-
ing posts until the English soldiers and American colonists closed the
door upon the French by capturing their stronghold on the St. Law-
rence in 1759.
17
Among the heroic figures of French colonial days was Daniel Gris
olon (or Duluth, as he is known), who deserves more than passing
mention. His name appears in the old manuscripts as Du Lhu or Du
Lhut, and the records show that he was one of the chief instruments in
opening up the great west to the fur trade. He was born near Lyons,
France, about 1645, and like other Frenchmen who came to the new
world his family name was almost forgotten, and he was known by the
place of his nativity. Duluth was the friend and companion of La
Salle and the elder Tonty, and after making one trip with them he
turned to the far north for individual exploration. His headquarters
were established at Mackinaw, in the earliest days of that settlement,
and he was the agent among the Indians of the Northwest, inducing
them to be friendly with the Frenchmen and to bring their furs to
Mackinaw for trade. He was next to Commandant Durantaye in au-
thority and his associates were M. de la Forest, De Lusigny and Gris-
olon de la Tourette, his brother. Frontenac trusted his judgment in
important matters, and the friendship between them aroused the jeal-
ousy of the Intendant Duchesnau, who feared Duluth's influence. The
intendant declared Duluth to be a dangerous man to the crown, as he
had more than 500 men in the upper country who acknowledged him
as their commander and would follow wherever he might lead. He
was certainly the leader of the courenrs de bois in the Northwest. At
Thunder Bay, op the north shore of Lake Superior, he built a fort
near the site of the present Fort William, in 1677. In 1678 he went to
the headwaters of the Mississippi. In 1679 he visited the Sioux In-
dians and the Assinniboine Indians, who inhabited the region now
known as Manitoba. In 1680 he went once more to the headwaters of
the Mississippi River, where he found Father Hennepin a prisoner
among the Indians, he having been adopted as the son of a chief. He
brought the priest down the river and crossed the country from the
mouth of the Illinois River to Montreal. Duluth was a man of superb
qualities; his courage was marvelous and his tact admirable. In 1684
two of his followers were waylaid and murdered by Indians on the
north shore of Lake Superior. He realized that if the crime went un-
punished, the Indians would hold him in contempt, and his followers
would lack confidence in his ability. He walked boldly into the camp
of a large band of Indians and asked for the warriors who had taken
white scalps. Then he demanded their heads of the chief, but was re-
fused ; he seized the two offenders and shot them dead, regardless of
18
the yells and threats of the savages who surrounded them, and thus
gained their respect. In 1687, as already stated, he built Fort St.
Joseph, at the foot of Lake Huron. His courage and tact were again
displayed when the Iroquois descended upon Montreal in 1689. They
came in such force that the settlers were seized with panic. Duluth
took twenty-seven Canadians with him in a large canoe and went out
to meet a party of twenty-two Iroquois, who were paddling on the
river. The Indians opened fire and kept it up, but Duluth made his
men stand to their paddles until they closed with the savages. Then
eighteen were killed, three were taken prisoners and one was allowed
to escape to tell the story of the white man's valor to the Six Nations.
Duluth suffered from articular rheumatism from his youth, and in
many of his long journeys every step gave him a pang. He died in
1709 at the head of Lake Superior, and the thriving city of Duluth is a
monument to his name.
As soon as La Salle had described the importance of Detroit River
to Denonville at Quebec, and had shown the danger of its being seized
by the English, the governor resolved to be first on the ground. The
following extract is from a letter from Governor Denonville to Duluth,
dated Ville de Marie (the ancient name for Montreal), June 6, 1686:
"I hereby send you word to join M. Durantaye who is to be at Michilimaquina
[Mackinaw] to carry out the orders I am sending him for the safety of our allies [the
Huron Indians] and friends. You will see from the letter I am writing M. de la
Durantaye, that my intention is that you should occupy a post in an advantageous
spot so as to secure this passage to us, to protect our savages who go hunting there,
and to serve them as a refuge against their enemies and ours [the Iroquois]. You
will do nothing and say nothing to the Iroquois, unless they venture on an attempt
against you and against our allies. It is my intention that you shall go to this post
as soon as ever you can with about twenty men only, whom you will station there
under command of whichever of your lieutenants you may choose as being the fittest
for the command. After you have given all the orders you may think necessary for
the safety of this post and have strictly enjoined your lieutenant to be on his guard,
you will repair to Michilimaquina to wait for the Rev. Father Anjabram there, and
receive instructions and information as to all I have communicated to him. You will
then return to this post with thirty more men whom you will receive from M. de la
Durantaye. I have no doubt some trade in furs may be done, so your men will do
well to take some goods there. I cannot recommend you too strongly to keep a good
understanding with M. de la Durantaye, without which all our plans will come to
nothing and the service of the king will suffer greatly."
In obeying this order Duluth made an error of judgment, for he
selected for the site of his fort the spot now occupied by Fort Gratiot
19
and named the post Fort St. Joseph, His mistake soon became appar-
ent. On June 7, 1687, there was a gathering of the French colonial
celebrities on Detroit River, and a deed of possession was formally pre-
pared in the name of the king of France by Olivier Morel, esquire, Sieur
de la Durantaye, commandant for the king in the land of theOutaouan
(Ottawas), Miamis, Poutouamies (Potawatamies), Cioux (Sioux) and
other tribes, under the orders of the Marquis Denonville, governor-
general of New France. It reads in part as follows:
"This seventh day of June, 1687, in the presence of Father Anjabram, M. de la
Forest, M. de Lisle, our lieutenant, and M. Beauvais, of the Fort of St. Joseph at
the strait between Lakes Huron and Erie, We Declare to all whom it may concern
that we came to the margin of St. Deny's River [supposed to be identical with the
River Rouge] situated three leagues from Lake Errier [Erie], on the strait between said
lakes Huron and Errier, to the south of said strait and lower down toward the en-
trance to Lake Errier on the north. On behalf of the king and in his name to repeat
the taking possession of the said posts which was done by M. de la Salle to facilitate
the journeys he made and had made by barge from Niagara to Michilimaquinac in
the years [left vacant in MSS.], at which said stations we should have had a post set
up again, with the arms of the king, in order to mark the said retaking possession,
and directed several small dwellings to be built for the establishment of the French
and savages, the Chaouannous [Shawnees] and Miamis, for a long time owners of
the said lands of the straits and of Lake Errier, from which they withdrew for some
time for their greater convenience."
This instrument indicates that the French based their claims upon
the discovery of La Salle and upon the posts or camping grounds
where his party encamped during the historic voyage of the Griffon.
They took pains to forestall any claims the British may have set up by
later discovery, and also any claim the Iroquois, who were friendly to
the British, might have set up on driving the Miamis and Shawnees
from the trapping grounds along the Detroit River, which region the
Iroquois claimed under the name of Teuscha Gronde.
As soon as Fort St. Joseph was built at the foot of Lake Huron, the
Iroquois, who had been urged on by the British, went to Fort Frontenac
to protest, as they claimed the whole region. That protest was disre-
garded, and the British set to work to prevent the French from gaining
possession and from securing the highway to the fur country of the
north. The Iroquois delegation went from Frontenac to Orange (Al-
bany) and, as appears in the first chapter of this work, surrendered all
their claims to the British. Governor Dongan, of New York, protested
for the British against the French claim and took steps toward estab-
lishing British posts in the territory. It proved to be a close race and
20
the French only won because they came in superior force. As Com-
mandant Durantaye came down with his canoe fleet from Mackinaw,
he came upon a party of English and Dutch traders from Orange or
Albany, under command of a Dutch captain named Roseboom, which
had passed Fort St. Joseph unobserved by the garrison and had reached
a point twenty miles above in Lake Huron. This party numbered but
thirty men, and, as Durantaye had about one hundred and fifty French
and Indians with him, he took them prisoners and they were unwilling
witnesses of the act of claim by the French. When the formalities had
been observed, the party which now numbered nearly three hundred,
set out for Niagara. Half down Lake Erie they came upon a party of
thirty under command of Major McGregor, who were on their way to
Detroit River, There were sixteen Englishmen and thirteen Iroquois
in the party, and they too were made prisoners and carried back to
Niagara. Next year Fort St. Joseph, being badly situated, was aban-
doned, and to prevent it from falling into the hands of the British, it
was burned to the ground by Baron La Hontan while on his way to
Mackinaw in 1689.
Duluth's party, which took formal possession of the Detroit River,
may not have known it, but there was a much earlier claim on file for
the French in the archives at Quebec, set up by Fathers Dollier and
Galinee, in 1669, eight years before, which has already been alluded to.
CHAPTER IV.
Cadillac the Founder of Detroit — A Clever Gascon Who Has Been Much Maligned
— He was a Privateer Preying upon the New England Coast — Then Commandant at
Mackmaw— 1668-1701.
A majority of historians say that Cadillac was born in the fertile and
picturesque country bordering on the Garonne, at the village of Saint
Nicholas-de-la-Grave, included in the modern department of Tarn-et-
Garonne, on March 5, 1658. This statement is adopted by Silas Farmer
in his history of Detroit and Michigan, and is apparently buttressed by
records and parish registers. Margry, the eminent French archivist,
who is an authority on French colonization in America, said he could
21
not ascertain the date of his death. C. M. Burton, of Detroit, caused
the parish records of Saint Nicholas-de-la-Grave to be examined and
'found that there was born there on December 4, 1663, Antoine de la
Laumet, son of Jean Laumet and Jeanne Pechequt, and does not be-
lieve that Antoine de la Laumet and Antoine de la Motte are the same
person. Cadillac's marriage record at Quebec, shows that his father
was Jean de La Mothe, Seigneur de Cadillac, conseiller of the parlia-
ment of Toulouse, and that his mother was Jeanne de Malefant. But
the question is really of minor interest, as Cadillac's later history on all
that is important is well known and belongs to the history of France
and America. The founder of Detroit was descended from a family
which had furnished many advocates, judges and army officers to the
province and the nation, and his father, Jean, was an advocate at the
court. Antoine probably received the name of La Mothe Cadillac from
some estate of his parents, who were well endowed with this world's
goods. This change of name, or rather adoption of another name, was
quite common at the time. In like manner Marie Arouet received the
name of Voltaire, and became one of the world's most famous men
under that cognomen. In after life Cadillac wrote his name in several
ways, but in this bad and misleading practice he simply imitated
many others. It even exists to this day among many French Cana-
dians. Cadillac received a fine education, and it is said that his father
wished him to become a judge. But the routine life of a provincial
magistrate did not present any attraction for the sprightly and am-
bitious young man, and he soon afterward entered the French army,
and was a lieutenant in the regiment of Dampierre- Lorraine, and a
lieutenant in the regiment of Claurembault in 1677. He was a very
good Latin scholar and a student of biblical history and theology; in
after years when he encountered the Jesuits in America, he showed
that he was an adept in polemics. A tradition, founded on an old
French manuscript, is to the effect that he committed an offense
common to hot youth, and that to avoid the consequences he came to
America.
Cadillac was a Gascon by birth and descent. The fact that his father
was possessed of considerable estate in the province is evidence that
they were not parvenues. The people of Gascony, like those of Brit-
anny, possess marked characteristics which distinguish them from
other Frenchmen. Gascons are not pure French. In the northern
part of the Iberian Peninsula, which occupies both slopes of the Pyre-
22
nees, live the remains of a very ancient people who were called Vas-
cones in ancient times. They were mountaineers, herdsmen and
shepherds, and although they were assailed by Cathaginians, Romans,
Saracens, Goths, French and Spaniards, they have preserved their race
identity to the present day, together with the most remarkable lan-
guage in Europe, and customs which differ from those of all neighbor-
ing people. They are commonly known as Basques, but those who
lived on the northern slope of the Pyrenees absorbed a portion of the
great Gothic invasion, and the Vascones became known as Gascons
within the border of France. They are to France what the Highland-
ers are to Scotland — bold, impetuous and untamable by oppression, but
good citizens and splendid soldiers when allowed their own ways.
Their physical characteristics are a medium build, somewhat spare but
extremely robust and possessed of great activity. They are the dark-
est skinned people of France, and have large gray eyes and black hair.
They have been, and still are, blustering fellows with the strutting
ways of the game cock, and with the same appetite for battle. Gas-
conade is a synonym for brag, bluff, or a blustering manner. They
are extremely democratic in their ideas, and the few titled people
among them obtained their honors for participating in the wars with
the Moors. It is doubtful if a better exposition of the Gascon charac-
ter could be written than Dumas's great character, D'Artagnan, in the
"Three Musketeers," and one may picture the Sieur Cadillac as an-
other D'Artagnan, somewhat subdued by education, years and associ-
ation with court officials, but still retaining the physical and mental
characteristics of his ancestors. It is regrettable that more authentic
details of his early life have not yet been discovered, and that the only
account of his youthful career that has been written, is so apparently
untruthful as to excite anger and disgust in the mind of the student of
history. The alleged biography is from the pen of Gayerre, the his-
torian of Louisiana, of which Cadillac was governor for several years
after he left Detroit. Gayerre for some cause seems to have imbibed
a hatred of the founder of Detroit, and he maliciously, and in most
cases falsely, abuses him from every standpoint. He ridicules his
physical appearance, depreciates his mental makeup and denounces his
political and personal career.
"Cadillac's family," says Gayerre, "was ancient, but for several
centuries it had, by some fatality or other, been rapidly sliding down
from the elevated position it once occupied. When Cadillac w^as ushered
23
into life, the domains of his ancestors had for many past generations
been reduced to a few acres of land. The small estate was dignified
however with an old dilapidated edifice which bore the name of castle,
although at a distance, to an unprejudiced eye, it presented some un-
lucky resemblance to a barn ; a solitary tower as it were in a gown of
moss and ivy raised its gray head to a height which might have been
called respectable, and which appeared to offer special attraction to
crows, swallows and bats. The young boys of the neighborhood called
it Cadillac's rookery, and it was currently known under this ungenteel
appellation. Cadillac had received a provincial and domestic education,
and had up to his twenty fifth year moved in a very contracted sphere.
Nay, it maj'' be said that he almost lived in solitude, for he had lost
both his parents when hardly eighteen summers had passed over his
head, and he had since kept company with none but the old tutor to
whom he was indebted for such classical attainments as he had acquired.
His mind being as much curtailed in its proportions as his patrimonial
acres, his intellectual vision could not extend very far, and if Cadillac
was not literally a dunce, it was well known that Cadillac's wits would
never run away with him. Whether it was owing to this accidental
organization of his brain or not, certain it is that one thing afforded the
most intense delight to Cadillac — it was that no blood so refined as his
own ran in the veins of any other human being, and that his person
was the very incarnation of ability. With such a conviction rooted in
his heart, it is not astonishing that his tall, thin and emaciated body
should have stiffened itself into the most accurate observation of the
perpendicular. Indeed it was exceedingly pleasant and exhilarating to
the lungs to see Cadillac on a Sunday morning strutting along in full
dress, on his way to church, through the meager village attached to his
hereditary domain. His bow to the mayor and the curate was some-
thing rare — an infinite burlesque of infinitive majesty, thawing into
infinite affability. His ponderous wig, the curls of which spread like
a peacock's tail, seemed to be alive with a conscious pride at the good
luck it had of covering a head of so much importance to the human
race. His eyes, in whose favor nature had been pleased to deviate
from the oval to the round shape, were possessed with a stare of as-
tonishment, as if they meant to convey the impression that the spirit
within was in a trance of stupefaction, at the astonishing fact that the
being it animated did not produce a more startling effect upon the
world. The physiognomy which I am endeavoring to depict was ren-
24
dered more remarkable by a stout, cocked- up, snub nose, which looked
as if it had been hurried back in a fright from the tip to squat in rather
too close proximity to the eyes, which, with its dilated nostrils, seemed
always on the point of sneezing at something thrusting itself between
the wind and its nobility. His lips wore a mocking smile, as if sneer-
ing at the strange circumstance that a Cadillac should be reduced to be
an obscure, penniless individual. But if Cadillac had his weak points,
it must also be told that he was not without strong ones. Thus he had
a great deal of energy, bordering, it is true, upon obstinacy; he was a
rigidly moral and pious man, and he was too proud not to be valiant."
Gayerre goes on in the same vein to say that " Cadillac deemed it a
paramount duty to himself and his Maker not to allow his race to be-
come extinct, and he went a courting among the gentility of the neigh-
borhood, where he was universally voted a quiz. So he had to con-
tent himself with a poor spinster who, like himself, was of unsullied
descent and hereditary poverty. The lady was a distant relative to the
duke of Lauzon, and she wrote him in behalf of her new husband.
Lauzon showed the quaint letter to Louis XIV, who smiled at its con-
tents and gave Cadillac a captaincy in an infantry regiment which had
been ordered to Canada."
It is quite evident that Ga^'erre drew this picture of the founder of
Detroit from pure imagination. To give his description some coloring
of truth, he has caricatuied the typical Gascon outrageously and has
made a very poor attempt to follow Dumas, who introduces his Gascon
hero, D'Artagnan, as a "Don Quixote of eighteen years," and subse-
quently develops him into the flower of the army. Note the descrip-
tion of D'Artagnan as he steps upon the first page of the novel. "A
Don Quixote clothed in a woolen doublet, the blue color of which has
faded to a nameless shade between the lees of wine and a heavenly
azure. Face long and brown; high cheek bones — a sign of austerity;
the maxillary muscles enormously developed— an infallible sign by
which a Gascon may always be detected, even without his barret cap
set o£E with a feather; the eye open and intelligent; the nose hooked,
but finely chiseled — too big for a youth, too small for a man. Our
young man had a steed, which was observed of all observers; it was a
Beam pony, twelve or fourteen years old, yellow in his hide, without a
hair in his tail, but not without windgalls on his legs, which, through
going with his head lower than his knees, rendered a martingale quite
unnecessary; he contrived nevertheless to perform his eight leagues a
day. "
25
This is but a fragment, but it is sufficient to show the source of
Gayerre's inspiration. It is evident that this Frenchman, who under-
took to describe Cadillac to the world, did not recognize the distinction
between history and romance ; between fact and fiction. This picture
of Cadillac and his antecedents, even at first blush, and without exam-
ining authorities, would be seriously questioned by students of history,
but when the record of history is consulted it can be shown to be un-
warranted by facts or even probability. And yet there are those who
think and say even at this late day, that Gayerre's work has "thrown a
flood of light on the personality and character of Cadillac." In the
first place, Cadillac did not marry any poor, well-born maiden in
France ; he was married to Marie Theresa Guyon, at Quebec, and this
was his first and only wife. So that the fanciful story of his owing his
advancement to his wife's powerful relatives in France is pure fiction.
Had he been a bigamist, the Jesuits, who were his enemies and who
had the ear of Louis XIV, through his confessor, Pere la Chaise, a
member of their order, would undoubtedly have published it to the
world As for the description of Cadillac's person by the same author,
it may be said to be inspired by a literary prejudice which is really un-
scrupulous in its malice. But any further discussion of Gayerre's de-
piction of Cadillac is totally unnecessary, as that author in a letter to
Silas Farmer, the author of the " History of Detroit and Michigan,"
practically acknowledged that his allusions to the founder of Detroit
were imaginary, and that he knew nothing of his antecedents previous
to his coming to Louisiana as its governor in 1713. Gayerre writes as
follows: " I know nothing historical about his looks, but squibs and
pasquinades floated down the stream of time about his oddities, through
the channels of tradition. I somewhat fancifully sketched his per-
sonal appearance so as to make it agree with his character as it pre-
sented itself to me, historically and professionally."
Toward the close of the 17th century the explorations and coloniza
tion of France in America were subjects of intense interest among all
classes in the mother country. They enlisted the attention of the
mercantile classes, ever anxious to extend their trading interests; the
young, who were fascinated by the romance of adventure in a distant
clime; and the religious, to whom the aborigines seemed to afford a
grand opportunity for conversion to Christianity. Young Cadillac
was ambitious and romantic when he left old France and came to New
France in 1683; he was then about twenty-three years of age. His
26
first movements in the new country are not known. Being a French
officer, it would appear probable that he would seek service in one of
the French commands at Quebec, or at some of its dependencies, but
this he did not do. Perhaps he realized that the station and pay of a
lieutenant in a wild and thinly settled colony promised neither glory or
wealth. Whatever his reason, he turned his back on Quebec and went
to Port Royal, on the east coast of Acadia (Nova Scotia), then a French
colony, where he became a subordinate to Francois Guyon, a master
mariner. Guyon was at that time engaged in the hazardous and often
profitable business of privateering. Margry, the French archivist,
calls him a "corsair," which is equivalent to the term pirate, but he
was not a sea marauder who sailed under the black flag. France under
Louis XIV was at war with Spain in 1683, and had invaded the Spanish
Netherlands, but hostilities ended the next year by the treaty of Ratis-
bon. But the reign of the Grand Monarch was one of almost incessant
war, and in 1688 France was at war with Germany, Spain and England
allied. The fighting lasted ten years and was ended by the treaty of
Ryswyck in 1697. During these years there was a fine field of oper-
ation for French privateers in America, and it may well be supposed
that Guyon and Cadillac made good and profitable captures of English
ships and Spanish galleons laden with the treasures of the new world.
This part of Cadillac's life has not yet been investigated by historians,
but there is scarcely any doubt that the records of the French ministry
of marine of that day will yet afford ample information of their joint
doings. This period was probably the turning point in Cadillac's life.
The maritime excursions from Port Royal doubtless ranged along the
entire Atlantic coast, and he, Cadillac, thereby acquired an accurate
and extensive knowledge of the coasts of New England and Virginia,
at that time studded with British colonies. During the constant wars
between B2uropean nations at this period there was always more or less
privateering, and the spoils were so tempting that the men who en-
gaged in such enterprises were loath to give up their calling when
peace was declared. When they could not secure letters of marque
legalizing their system of robbery, they hoisted the black flag, like
Captain Kidd, and committed horrible crimes against inoffensive per-
sons for the purpose of making rich gains. Instead of taking a cap-
tured vessel to a home or a neutral port, and selling it as a prize in
conformity with the law of nations, these buccaneers took the most
valuable portion of the cargo, usually limiting their seizure to specie
27
gold and silver bullion, jewels and rum, and then, to conceal their
crime, murdered the passengers and crew and destroyed the captured
vessel, Guyon and Cadillac were apparently men of honor who would
not stoop to such crimes.
It was during this period of his life that Cadillac paid a visit to Que-
bec, where he got into trouble. In this visit he was probably bent on
pleasure rather than business. It appears that Governor Denonville
summoned the officers at Quebec and a number of witnesses to a court
martial held in the house of the widow of Pierre Pellerin, in St. Pierre
street, Quebec, on the evening of May 4, 168G. Cadillac was then in
Quebec on a visit and he was the culprit at this trial. The witnesses
deposed that a number of them, soldiers of the fort, had been gathered
at the wine shop of the widow St. Armand in lower town on the pre-
vious evening. Lieutenant Jacques Charles Sabrevois, of Captain Des-
querac's company, was the leader of the party. M. de La Mothe (Cad-
illac) entered the room alone, apparently in bad temper. Sabrevois
asked him if he would join him and some of the others and go to the
upper town, but Cadillac scornfully declined and remarked if he was
in the place of Captain Desquerac he would confine Sabrevois to the
quarters. When Sabrevois asked why, Cadillac ironically said he would
not have such a gallant coxcomb strutting about at large among the
ladies, for he would consider him a dangerous rival.
"Well you might," replied Sabrevois, "for if you had a mistress I
should certainly be your rival."
" That he would," said De la Parelle, one of the party, " and you
would never have the wit to discover it."
" Wit, wit, what do you mean by such talk," asked Cadillac angrily;
then he turned to Sabrevois who was a great gallant among the ladies
and much petted by the authorities.
"Go, my little friend," said he, curling his lips in scorn, " although
I am not supported by the Marquis as you are, I can give you a good
thrashing, which you appear to need."
"What! a thrashing! and from you?" cried Sabrevois clapping his
hand to his sword hilt.
Cadillac snatched his blade half way from the scabbard, and then mutual
friends rushed between the two belligerents. Cadillac replaced his
sword because it was impossible to use it, but a candle was burning in
a massive copper candlestick which stood on the table. He snatched
this candlestick and hurled it at Sabrevois's head, felling him to the
28
^-^^^^^^e^^^^/
floor. The room was left in darkness and vSabrevois cried out: "I'm
killed! I'm a dead man."
Sabrevois was not killed, however, although he carried the scar of a
bad scalp wound to his grave. He lived to became a prominent resident
of Detroit for many years. He was commandant at Detroit from 1714
to 1717; again from 1734 to 1738 and once more from 1746 to 1750, at
which time he must have been above eighty years of age. Cadillac had
been in his grave nearly twenty years at that time.
Soon after this quarrel with Sabrevois, Cadillac fell in love. He had
paid several visits to the home of his superior, Francois Guyon, at Beau-
port, a settlement on the St. Lawrence, near Quebec. Here he first
met Marie Therese, daughter of Denis Guyon, a brother of Francois,
who had come there from Quebec on a visit to her uncle's family. The
acquaintance ripened into mutual love, and they were married at the
house of the bride's father in Quebec, on June 25, 1687. He received
a substantial dowry, as was the custom of the time, and the newly
married couple went to Port Royal to settle down in life. He applied
to Governor Denonville for a grant of land called Donaquec, in what is
now the State of Maine. This land was on the coast and was six miles
square, and he also asked for the Island of Mt. Desert, lying in front
of the tract. This was granted by Governor Denonville and Intendant
Champigny in 1688, and was confirmed by Louis XIV on May 24, 1689.
Besides the grant of this domain, he was commissioned a magistrate,
with rights of high, middle and low justice, which made him virtually
the ruler in his district. It is evident that these favors were bestowed
upon him for his skill and intrepidity as a mariner, and that he served
what the French government considered the highest interests of that
nation by crippling or destroying the merchant ships of the British in
American waters.
But France had need of Cadillac and he was not allowed to sink into
semi-obscurity as a seigneur and rural potentate. Chevalier Louis
Hector de Callieres, then commandant of Mount Royal (Montreal),
went to Paris and in January, 1689, presented a plan for a joint land
and naval expedition for the capture of New York. The plan was
approved by Louis XIV, and two vessels, the L'Embuscade and LeFour-
gon, were fitted out for the expedition and placed under the command
of Rear Admiral Sieur de la Caffiniere. Frontenac, who had been a
second time appointed governor of New France, accompanied the ex-
pedition. The expedition reached the mouth of the St. Lawrence,
29
where Frontenac shipped on another vessel for Quebec, where he was
to g-ather a land force and march on New York. The two war vessels
went on their way to the Bay of New York, then called the Bay of
Menathe. Caffiniere captured seven English vessels on the way, but
had to put in at Port Royal on account of contrary winds. Here he
became impressed with the necessity of securing a pilot who knew the
coast, and engaged Cadillac, but when they reached the Bay of New
York there was no land force there to co-operate with the fleet. The
season being late, he returned to France, taking Cadillac with him.
C.4DILLAC AS A COURTIER.
The young Gascon spent seven months at the Court of France, where
he sedulously sought preferment, and lived as best he might, princi-
pally by borrowing money. His manner, which was ingratiating and
cordial, stood him in good stead and he soon impressed those in power
with his knowledge and capacity. His opinions were sought by mili-
tary and naval ofBcers, and his future prospects seemed brighter than
ever. While thus employed concocting measures for the capture of
New York and Boston, the British were busy at his home at Port
Royal. On May 10, 1690, a fleet under Sir William Phips entered
Port Royal and plundered the town, burned Cadillac's house and sev-
eral other dwellings, and made his wife and family prisoners of war,
but they were soon released. A few months afterward Sir William
Phips with a fleet of thirty-four vessels, large and small, advanced to
Beauport and, sending a flag of truce, demanded the surrender of
Quebec. But Frontenac made a spirited defense and four days after-
ward Phips's force retired, his land troops abandoning their cannon
and ammunition.
The Marquis de Denonville, who was governor of New France from
1G85 to 1G89, retained considerable interest in its affairs after he had re-
signed his office. In 1690 he submitted to the government a plan for
attack on the English settlements at New York, Boston and elsewhere.
There were, he said, three persons in New France who were well
acquainted with the New England coast, namely, M. Perrot, Sieur de
Villebon, and La Mothe Cadillac, Meanwhile Cadillac had become ac-
quainted with the colonial minister, Count Pontchartrain, who admired
him for his ability and address, and when he left France for America,
November, 1690, he bore with him the following letter of recommend-
ation, signed by Pontchartrain:
30
" Sieur de Lamothe Cadillac, a gentleman of Acadia, having been ordered to em-
bark for the service of the king, on the Embuscade, which vessel had brought him
to France, his majesty being informed that during his absence his habitation was
ruined, hopes that Frontenac, the new governor of Canada, will find it convenient
to give him such employment as he may find proper for his services and that he will
assist him if he can."
Cadillac presented this letter to Governor Frontenac when he arrived
in Quebec, and in obedience to the wishes of the king he was appointed
lieutenant of the troop of the colony in place of Sieur de Longueil,
made captain. Strictly speaking, the colonial troop were not soldiers
but marines, as the French minister of marine had charge of all colonial
affairs. In June, 1691, Cadillac again experienced a stroke of bad for-
tune. His wife and children and remaining property shipped on board
a barque at Port Royal (now named Annapolis Royal) for Quebec, but
at the mouth of the St. Lawrence the boat was captured by an English
privateer from Boston. It is not known whether his wife and family
were taken to Boston, but if so they were not detained long. The
parish records at Quebec show that Mme. Cadillac there gave birth to
a son, Antoine, who was baptized April 26, 1692; this was the oldest
son. A daughter named Magdaline was born to them before that time.
In the same month Cadillac received a letter from Louis XIV, request-
ing him to come to France and give information regarding the pro-
posed attack on the English settlements. Again he left his family,
and in Paris submitted an elaborate plan of operation, in which he dis-
played his wonderful knowledge of the topography of the entire coast,
its villages, populations, character of the inhabitants, fortifications,
military strength and the soundings of bays and rivers. This report
is still in the French archives, and its perusal, with other knowledge of
the man, enabled Margry, the archivist, to say that "Cadillac had the
best of instruction ; he had ideas concerning politics, military affairs,
colonization, the royal power and its relation with the church, the In-
dians, etc., and these ideas he maintained with a certain braggadocia
spirit. He went to the bottom of these questions and his letters, like
his memoirs, were characteristic and sharp." James Rundot, the
French intendant of New France, also says that "he had a winning
manner." His interest at the court of France was materially strength-
ened by his masterly report and to this was added the strong friendship
of Count Pontchartrain.
31
CHAPTER V.
Cadillac Foolishly Quarrels with the Jesuits and Lays the Foundation of all His
Misfortunes— He Wanted to Sell Brandy to the Indians in Defiance of the Law—
1685-1700.
Cadillac spent the winter of 1693 at Quebec in close communion with
Governor Frontenac, as a member of his military household. The
tedium of a cold winter was enlivened with accustomed Gallic gayety
by parties, balls and private theatricals. Two plays, "Nicomede"
and " Mithridate," were presented by the officers, citizens and ladies
who had dramatic tastes. In these plays the clerical characters were
shown to be only human beings, and afflicted with propensities com-
mon to the rest of mankind. In plays of this character Moliere, the
great French dramatist, had incurred the hostility of the priesthood
thirty years before. His "Tartuffe" had been presented at the Palais
Royal with signal success, but its second representation had been for-
bidden by the archbishop, who threatened excommunication to both
the actors and the audience who attended it. The plays presented at
Quebec were of a milder sort, but the Jesuits resented their produc-
tion. Governor Frontenac, who was an enemy of the order, like De
Soto and La Salle, took the other side and a bitter quarrel ensued be-
tween the Church and State, in which the people ranged themselves
on either side. It is needless to say that Cadillac was on the side of
the governor.
In 1694 he received the appointment of commandant at Michilli-
mackinac (Mackinac). His shattered fortunes were greatly in need of
such a position, but he was not elated thereby, as the climate in that
region was severe and he shrewdly foresaw that his authority would be
greatly curtailed by the influence of the Jesuits, who had founded the
post and virtually ruled its affairs. This region was not unknown to
the early French explorers; Father Allouez, who had come to Quebec
with Champlain in 1615, had visited it in 1665, and had pushed west-
ward past Mackinaw to Green Bay, in what is now the State of Wis-
consin, where he taught the gospel to the Miamis, Mascoutins and
32
Kickapoos. Here, too, Father Marquette in 1668 had founded a
mission where the St. Mary's River enters Lake Huron, and here he
was buried under the earthen floor of the chapel at St. Ignace in 1675.
Four years later came to Mackinac the good ship Griffon, the first ves-
sel on Lakes Erie and Huron, with Robert de La Salle and Henry Tonty
on board. Cadillac accepted the position and commenced by borrow-
ing 3,750 livres, or about $750 from Francis Hazeur, of Montreal, for
the purpose of investing in furs. The document acknowledging this
debt is now (1897) in the possession of Joseph Belanger, the French
consul of Detroit. Gathering a number of emigrants at Quebec, he
started for Michillimackinac, but the reports of the disadvantage of the
place so wrought on them that a majority stopped at Montreal and
would go no further, but he took the remainder and pushed on to his
destination, where he succeeded the Sieur de Louvigny.
In 1694, when Cadillac took charge, Michillimackinac had a fort
garrisoned by some 200 French troops, and a white civil population of
about two hundred, composed of traders, coiireurs de bois and artisans,
v7ho occupied some sixty houses within the palisade. Around the fort
were the villages of the Hurons, Ottawas and other tribes of the Al-
gonquin confeder'acy, who were gathered there under the influence of
the Jesuit missionaries. In summer the savages were mostly engaged
in hunting, and in the winter made the neighborhood of the fort their
home. In the latter season there were about six thousand Indians
around this place. It was not long before there was trouble between
the commandant and the priests. The Jesuits there had heard of the
dramatic villification of the clergy at Quebec, and, it is said, incited
some of the officers of the post against the commandant. But Cadillac
quickly stopped the trouble by placing the officers under arrest. This
was probably the beginning of the long contmued opposition of the
Jesuits to Cadillac and his plans, an opposition which he encountered
at nearly every step in his career, and which lasted until he left Amer-
ica for old France. The pojst of Mackinac was a part of the French
scheme for the establishment of armed forts along the lakes and rivers
and down the Mississippi to its mouth, for the joint purpose of afford-
ing protection to the fur trade of France and the friendly Indians, as
against the rival interests of England and the warlike Iroquois. A
commercial disadvantage, which was also recognized by the French,
was that the English sold or rather bartered their goods for the furs of
the Indians at much better bargains than were allowed by the French,
and were sedulous in impressing the fact on the Indians at Mackinac
and elsewhere, by means of spies. Although the Hurons and Ottawas
were as nations generally opposed to the Iroquois and the British, they
were nevertheless keenly alive to their own interests, and a barrel of
rum, a keg of powder or a package of blankets would make friends of
ancient enemies. The same was true of the Iroquois and probably of
all the aborigines of the period. The cunning British traders could
thus prevail on a band of Hurons to take some Iroquois to the fort and
to their homes, ostensibly as prisoners, but really as spies to give in-
formation about the low-priced British goods.
Cadillac with his native acumen soon became aware of this scheme
and prepared to defeat it. One evening a Huron party brought in
seven Iroquois, of whom one was a chief, as prisoners, but two of them
were stabbed when they landed on the beach: The Hurons protected
the others, but finally gave the Iroquois chief into the hands of the
French, who thereupon sent an invitation to the Ottawas to drink the
broth of an Iroquois. The victim was tied to a stake, tortured by
burning his flesh with a red hot gun barrel, and afterward cut to pieces
and eaten. At another time four Iroquois prisoners, taken in war by
parties sent out by Cadillac, were burned, in order to renew and per-
petuate the strife between the Algonquins and Hurons on the one side,
and the Iroquois on the other. Cadillac at this time said, "If they
bring any prisoners to me, I can assure you their fate will be no sweeter
than that of the others."
In 1696 Frontenac overran part of New York, ravaging the English
settlements and in battle so reduced the Iroquois strength that they
lost 1,500 out of 2,800 warriors. This event and the treaty of Ryswick
in 1697, whereby peace was made between France and the allied pow-
ers, Germany, England, Spain and Holland, restored quiet for a time
in the lake region.
The greatest trouble between the Jesuit fathers and the command-
ant was the liquor question. Competition with the British, who fur-
nished rum and other goods in trade for peltries, made it absolutely
necessary for the French to deal out ardent liquors also. To stop this
branch of the traffic was simply to turn the trade into the hands of their
rivals. The Jesuits were determined to stop the traffic and Cadillac
was determined to continue it. The Jesuits spoke of the demoraliza-
tion of the Indians and the loss of souls through the influence of strong
drink, and Cadillac retorted by saying that the inclement winters at
34
the post and the absence of proper food at all seasons made it necessary
that a small quantity of liquor should be taken by every one every day.
" How will you be able," he wrote to the priest, " to endure the daily
exposure of these neophytes, for whom you feel so much affection, to
the excessive use of English rum and the imbibing of heresy ?" He
also charged the Jesuits with trading in beaver skins and also issuing
rum to the Indians, contrary to the king's order and their own duties,
which included poverty as well as chastity and obedience. The latter
charges, however, were not true ; it was afterward proved that it was
the coureiirs de bois or boatmen, hired by the Jesuits to carry their sup-
plies in canoes, who were the transgressors ; and these boatmen carried
goods and liquor surreptitiously on their own account without the knowl-
edge and consent of their employers. The Jesuits had a powerful
friend at the court of Louis XIV, in the person of Pere La Chaise, after
whom the great Parisian cemetery is named, and who was the confes-
sor of that monarch and a member of their order. In 1694 the king
referred to the Council of the Sorbonne for decision the liquor question
at Mackinac. The Sorbonne was the principal school of theology in
the ancient University of Paris, and had great influence and power,
and was appealed to in the disputes between the civil powers and the
papacy, and in the great theological controversies and schisms that
divided the church. The council decided that French brandy should
not be shipped to Mackinac, and this, the first Michigan prohibitory law,
was vigorously criticised by Cadillac, who saw that it was a fatal blow
to the advancement of the post, as well as his own personal interests.
"A drink of brandy," he wrote, "after a repast seems necessary to
cook the bilious meats and the crudities which they leave on the stom-
ach." He saw that unless he could exchange brandy for furs that the
Indians would go to the English at Albany, and it was this that event-
ually led him to resign. ^1 O X 0 b »>
While he was commandant at Mackinac an incident occurred which,
although not historically important, reveals some peculiar features of
the fur trading, and the regulations thereof by the French authorities,
and also the high favor with which Governor - General Frontenac
regarded Cadillac. The account of the affair was written by De Cham-
pigny, the intendant, or second in command of the colony. DeCham-
pigny was an active enemy of Cadillac, and the document was ad-
dressed to Count Pontchartrain. In this, as in "other official communi-
cations, Champigny is extremely egotistic, incredibly verbose and
undisguisedly malicious in his description of Cadillac's conduct and
motives. No answer of Cadillac to this attack is extant, and De
Champigny only credits him with a short and inadequate defense of a
few lines. It appears that Mme. La Mothe remained with her children
at Ouebec while her husband was at Mackinac. Cadillac instructed her
to send goods to Mackinac and she came to Montreal in 1696, and there
hired two voyageurs, named Moreau and Durand, to carry a boat load
of merchandise to her husband. Their compensation was to be two
hundred livres each, and permission to take goods to the value of one
hundred livres each for their own profit. But Cadillac's wife, says
Champigny, induced the two traders to fill two boats with goods, and
on these they also loaded four or five hundred livres' worth of goods on
their own account. The goods were on their way to Mackinac, but
they were stopped near the mouth of the Ottawa River by Sieur de la
Touche, the government commissary. He seized the extra boat, sold
its contents by auction, and realized 675 livres, which was applied, as
in like cases, to the hospital at Montreal. On the same boat were
forty pots of brandy, but Moreau claimed that they were for the use of
himself and Durand, and the liquor was allowed to go with the other
goods. The boatmen claimed that three other boats evaded the vigi-
lance of the commissary and went up for Cadillac to Mackinac. When
Moreau and Durand arrived there they purchased goods to the value of
seven thousand livres from Cadillac, and commenced to trade with the
Indians A month afterward Durand wounded a dog belonging to an
Indian; he would not pay for the injury, and Cadillac confined him in
a log jail. Durand was indignant and sent word that he would not pay
for the goods. Moreau, his partner, would not pay it alone and was
jailed. While they were prisoners Cadillac searched their store and
took out the goods he had sold them ; also those which belonged to
them, and also all their other property, on the ground that they had
brought more than the one hundred livres worth. Released a few
days afterward, the two men borrowed money and returned to Mon-
treal, and there waited for reparation. In September, 1797, Cadillac
visited Montreal and the two traders then commenced an action against
him. Their case was already in the hands of De Champigny, and
Cadillac entered his defense, which, however, is very inadequately
stated. The parties agreed to arbitrate their difference before two mer-
chants of Ouebec. New disputes arose and De Champigny was asked
by Moreau for an inquiry into the value of the goods, which he referred
ae
to Dupiiy, the "local lieutenant of the provostship of Quebec," But
Cadillac opposed the submitting- of the value to an inquiry, because he
suspected that it was for the purpose of valuing the goods he had
taken at the same rate at which they had been disposed of to the Sioux
Indians.
" I was ordered to prevent trade with the Sioux by Count Frontenac,"
he said, "and such trade was illegal."
Moreau retorted by saying that Cadillac himself had sent goods to
the Sioux country. Dupuy was about making up his decision in favor
of Moreau when he was summoned before Frontenac, who said in
effect that he was about to contravene his authority by the dictation of
Champigny, and sent him to prison, where he remained two days. The
two arbitrators discreetly resigned from the case a few days afterward.
Moreau then sent in another petition, which De Champigny sent to the
Supreme Council, which was composed of the governor, intendant and
bishop. But Cadillac followed with two other petitions, one that In
tendant Champigny should not consider the matter, and the other that
it should be referred to the provost at Quebec. Champigny here inter-
polates that the provost of Quebec was the god-father of Cadillac's
wife. It was then demanded that the case should be tried before the
Supreme Council, whereupon Cadillac said he would appeal to the king
Frontenac, however, came to the council, and objected to any course
which would deprive Cadillac of his appeal to the king, and after more
talk it was resolved to dismiss the whole case. De Champigny then
announced that he would try the case again, but Frontenac said he had
exceeded his authority. The intendant took up the case again and
sentenced Cadillac to pay three sums aggregating 2,565 livres to
Moreau, but next day Governor Frontenac annulled the decree and
Cadillac, according to the sporting phrase, "won out."
In connection with the above it may be stated that the French meas-
ures of capacity in those times were as follows: Two chopines made
one pint; one pint equaled one and two thirds pints (English measure);
two pints made one pot, or French quart; thirty-two pots made one
barrel. A roquille was a small measure corresponding to an English
gill and was one fourth of a chopine, or one-eighth of a pint. The
money of the time was as follows: A sol or sou was about equal in
value to a cent of United States currency; the livre (afterward franc)
contained twenty sols; a crown contained six livres; a pistole, which
was a Spanish coin, was equivalent to about twenty livres, or about $4.
37
During- his residence at Mackinac, the English and Iroquois were
continuously invading his territory, and Cadillac became convinced that
France's interest, as well as his own, would be subserved by a fort and
trading station, at a point where the French could better compete with
the English and the Iroquois, and that the straits between Lake Erie
and Huron was the proper place. After formulating his plans he re-
quested Governor Frontenac to recall him, which request was granted.
At Quebec a memorial was drawn up and sent to King Louis XIV, and
it is said that Cadillac went there in person to urge its adoption. Mean-
while his friend. Governor Frontenac, died on June 13, 1698, and De
Callieres was appointed governor. On May 27, 1699, the king sent
Cadillac's memorial to the new governor to report on the expediency
of the plan. De Callieres answered that Cadillac's plan was not practi-
cal; that the re establishment and repairing of old forts then in exist-
ence was much better; that the proposed fort was too near the forces
of the Iroquois and the English in Northern New York; therefore, that
a settlement there might be short lived. But Cadillac argued in turn
that a fort at Detroit would be far better than the one at Mackinac, for
it would prevent the British and Iroquois from entering the region of
the straits, which was the gateway of the upper country ; and that the
right way of surmounting opposition was to meet it boldly and not re-
tire before it. The king and his ministers admired Cadillac's boldness
and audacity, and he was given a commission to prepare for the ex-
pedition, a grant of twenty-five square arpents or acres, for the site of
the fort he might select, together with other privileges as a command-
ant, and 15,000 livres for the construction of the fort. Cadillac returned
to Quebec and at once began his preparations. There was good reason
for haste; the Iroquois had heard of the projected settlement and sent
envoys to De Callieres to protest against what they considered an in-
vasion of their rights and territory. A conference between the gov-
ernor and the head men of the confederacy was held at Quebec, on May
5, 1701. Callieres's arguments were mainly that he did not intend by
this expedition to deprive the Iroquois of their lands or other rights.
" The English " he said, " are moving on de Troit or the straits, with
the object of monopolizing the fur trade, and we must do something to
prevent it." In reply to further discussion in which the chief claimed
that the lands were the hunting ground of the Iroquois, he said, "It
does not belong to the Iroquois; it belongs to my master, the great
father in France. We intend to do with it as he pleases." Other re-
38
quests they made regarding trade were acceded to and the conference
ended.
De Callieres knew, however, that the Iroquois might possibly try to
penetrate their plans and, after consultation, Cadillac was directed to
take the Ottawa River route. This was chosen in preference to the
route by the St. Lawrence and Lakes Ontario and Erie, by which La
Salle reached the straits and the upper country, because the expedition
might then be seen and attacked by the Iroquois.
The progress of the expedition and the founding of Detroit have been
related in the first chapter of this book.
CHAPTER VI.
Indians and Coureurs de Bois — Characteristics of the Indians and of the Half-
Wild Voyageurs, Who Were the First Commercial Travelers in America — 1660-1760.
The Indians were such an important factor in the great problem of
European colonization, as well as in the early history of Detroit, that a
brief Yesume of their history, attitude and characteristics is necessary
to give a thorough understanding of the situation. In the northern
part of this continent, principally in the region of the great chain of
lakes and their tributary rivers, from the Atlantic to the extremity of
Lake Michigan, the red men generally belonged to three confederacies
— the Algonquins, the Hurons or Wyandots, and the Iroquois or Five
Nations.
The Algonquins were numerous and powerful, and their himting
grounds were mostly in Canada, from the mouth of the St. Lawrence
and the shores of Lake Ontario to the Niagara River. They were
tillers of the soil as well as hunters, and were the same kindred stock
as the Hurons. The Algonquin confederacy included 104 distinct
organized nations or tribes, and the seat of its power was on the south-
eastern shore of Lake Superior. Its leading nations on the west were
the Chippewas, Creeks, Ottawas, Potawatamies and Miamis; in the
east the Abinakis, the Micmacs, the Mohegans and the New England
and Virginia tribes ; and also several nations in the South. Some of
the southern nations of the confederacy were ultimately wiped out or
39
subdued by the Iroquois, but those who had not been conquered were
deadly enemies of the latter.
The Hurons, who were also kinsmen of the Iroquois, inhabited the
country bordering on the Ottawa River, from the Algonquin frontier to
the shores of Lake Huron. They were deadly foes of the Iroquois and
were finally driven from their hunting grounds and destroyed as a con-
federacy. The Hurons were so named by the French, because of the
manner in which they wore their hair, which was rough and stood up
like the bristles of the "hure"— wild boar. Cheveux releves — "with
hair standing up " — was another name bestowed on them by Cham-
plain. Among themselves, or with other Indians, the Hurons were
styled Ouendato, anglicized into Wyandots.
The Iroquois or Five Nations, the most numerous and warlike of the
three, lived principally on the southern side of the St. Lawrence, in
what is now the State of New York, north and west of the Kaalzbergs
and south of the Adirondacks. Some of their villages were on the
shores of Lake Champlain, but no accurate boundary line of their ter-
ritory or that of the Algonquins or Hurons can be given, as they va-
ried from time to time according to the fortunes of war. The Five
Nations were the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Sene-
cas. In 1714 they were joined by the remnants of the Tuscaroras, and
were afterward known as the Six Nations. At that time their total
number was estimated at 11,650, including 2,150 warriors. Tradition
says that the Iroquois were formed into a league by Hiawatha, the In-
dian incarnation of wisdom, about the beginning of the fifteenth cent-
ury. They were divided into about forty tribes, each ruled by a
sachem. The latter had an equal voice in the councils of the confeder-
acy, which were held at the capital of the Onondagas, a few miles
south of what is now Syracuse, N. Y. The central authority was a
president, and the women were allowed a voice in their legislative
councils. Champlain, the governor of New France, found them at war
with the Canada Indians, and other nations from Lake Huron to the
Gulf of Mexico, in which they were generally successful. With the
Algonquins and Hurons on his side, he fought them on Lake Cham-
plain in 1609, and from that time the Iroquois generally fought the
French and their Indian allies in Canada for about sixty years. The
Iroquois had made several treaties with the English before that year,
but the results were generally unsatisfactory. By the influence of Sir
William Johnson, the English Indian commissioner, they fought against
40
GEN. RUSSELL A. ALGER.
the French in 1755, four years before the power of the latter country-
was extinguished in the North and Northwest by the capture of Que-
bec. In 1763 some of them joined their ancient Indian foes in Pon-
tiac's conspiracy, and aided the great Ottawa in besieging the English
post of Detroit. In the war of the Revolution all the Iroquois except
the Oneidas and Tuscaroras embraced the side of the English, and led
by Joseph Brant, the great Mohawk chief, they desolated the Mohawk,
Cherry and Wyoming valleys in New York and Pennsylvania and mas-
sacred the settlers. After the close of the war a majority of the Iro-
quois removed to Canada, as they apprehended that the Americans
would take vengeance upon them for aiding the English, but the Oneidas
and Tuscaroras remained. Their descendants now number about
3,000, half of whom are in the State of New York, and the remainder
in other States and Canada.
All the Indians in North America had nearly the same characteristics ;
they were proud, haughty and taciturn, despised volubility, and were
sententious in conversation and debate, except in set rhetorical efforts,
in which their best speakers often rose to poetic heights and displayed
a wealth of imagination and great dignity and beauty of expression.
They were sagacious in penetrating motives, persevering in all their
undertakings, superstitious in the last degree, revengeful and cruel in
war, stoical under pain and hardship and indolent except in war and
the chase. A young Indian's future prospects depended upon his suc-
cess in killing his personal enemies and the enemies of his tribe. He
was not considered as having arrived at the condition of manhood until
he had carved out a reputation for personal prowess with his tomahawk
and scalping knife. The maidens would repel his advances if he had
taken no scalps.
The wampum belt was invariably used by the Indians in their nego-
tiations, either with their own race or with the white men. At first it
consisted of shells of diiTerent kinds, piered with holes, and strung to-
gether with thongs of deerskin. It consisted of several strings, each
being called a fathom, and several fathoms made a belt. Later, a por-
celain imitation of the shells was introduced, which served the same
purpose. When one tribe sent a messenger to another tribe, a belt of
wampum was always carried as an evidence of good faith as well as
courtesy. When treaties were made, a belt was handed over as each
article was agreed to, and this was considered as a solemn ratification.
The belts were in such constant use that in New England they passed
41
as money, and a fathom varied in price from $1.25 to $2, according to
the value of the shells.
In dealing with the aborigines the traders frequently defrauded them,
and it was in the very nature of the savages to settle the account at the
first favorable opportunity. When Major Waldo, of Maine, who had
sold goods to the Indians, fell into their power, they reminded him of
his habit of thrusting one hand into the scales for a pound weight, and
then proceeded to cut off his fingers. " Waldo," he was asked after
the cruel act was done, *' does your hand weigh a pound now?" Trad-
ers were often the earliest victims of Indian wars, and some were killed
in the lake country after Cadillac's arrival at Detroit. Women, except
perhaps among the Iroquois, occupied a degraded state, being com-
pelled to do the work of cultivating the Indian corn, boiling the maple
sap, cooking, etc., and were mere slaves to their lordly mates.
For ages before the white man came to this continent the aborigines
fought and slaughtered each other, and later, when the representatives
of a European power came among them and sought to acquire land or
advantages in trade, the obvious course for the white man to pursue
was to espouse the quarrels of one Indian nation against another. In
all wars between white principals, French and Spanish, French and
English, or English and American, there was always an Indian con-
tingent on each side. When the Spaniards discovered and slaughtered
the French Huguenots in Florida, they each had Indian allies. The
French governors of New France could gain the alliance of both the
Hurons and Algonquins, because these confederacies were generally in
peaceful relations with each other, but that precluded any friendship
with the Iroquois, and so the French had to fight with the two former
against their implacable foes on the south side of the St. Lawrence.
For the same reasons the Iroquois generally espoused the cause of the
English against the French. The red man, 'however, irrespective of
kinship or confederacy, generally looked out for his own advantage ;
he was crafty and discriminating, and seldom allowed sentiment to in-
terfere with his interests. In this region it was always a three- sided
game for gain, the French and English each trying to influence the
aborigines by cajolery, threats and presents, in order to gain control of
the fur trade, while the Indian coolly weighed the respective proposi-
tions, accepted those deemed most desirable, and meanwhile en-
deavored to hold the balance of power. No money passed in trade; it
was all barter. The red man had his peltries gained by long and
42
fatiguing excursions in the forest, and the French and English had
guns, powder, ball, scalping knives, axes, kettles, beads, blankets, pro-
visions and rum or brandy, but in the exchange the Indian had always
the worst of the trade. The aborigines joined either side and fought,
scalped, tortured or burned white and red human beings of all ages and
sexes, with perfect impartiality, if rewarded with sufficient supplies of
these articles of merchandise. Wherever the fur trade extended in
New France or New England, rum and brandy followed, and the
strong drink ever brought misery and ruin to the aboriginal population.
The labors of the Jesuits, or the Protestant divines that came later,
could do no more than alleviate these evils. The terrible scourge
of the small-pox, which broke out in the country northwest of Lake
Superior in 1782, was scarcely more fatal to the natives, though more
rapid and striking in its effects, than the power of ardent spirits. Furs
were gleaned with an iron hand and rum was given out with an iron
heart. Beavers were sought with a thirst of gain as great as that
which carried Cortez to Mexico and Pizarro to Peru, and no mines of
the precious metals which the world has ever produced were more pro-
ductive of wealth than the fur yielding region of America. About
1701, however, the beaver lost its supremacy in the European markets
for a time, but the demand for other choice furs continued unabated.
Had the Indians on this contment made joint resistance to the white
invader, it is very probable that European colonization would have been
delayed for centuries, but the Indian intellect was too narrow and the
Indian temperament too passionate. The red man could not submerge
his hates and prejudices, and thereby rise to the grander heights of
race association for a common cause. But two instances of Indian as-
sociation as a race against the whites can be cited, and these were both
failures. King Philip, son of Massassoit, who ruled in Massachusetts,
Connecticut and adjoining colonies, formed a combination with the Nar-
ragansetts in 1675 to drive out the English. The war raged for about
two years and ended with the killing of Philip and the destruction of
the allied tribes. The other was the well known conspiracy of Pontiac
in 1763, which failed as much by the splendid resistance of the white
man, as by the want of coherence among the savages.
Cannibalism was sometime practiced by nearly all the Indians, as
late as the eighteenth century, and there is a tradition of a case of man-
eating in Detroit as late as 1763. But there is no record of human
flesh being used by the aborigines as regular diet — it was only the
43
bodies of enemies that were devoured. When Governor-General De-
nonville vanquished the Seneca tribe of the Iroquois confederacy in
1687, he was horrified to see his Ottawa allies cut up and boil the bod-
ies of twenty-five Senecas and eat them with relish. The case of man-
eating in Detroit was vouched for by the late James W. Knaggs, who
related it to the writer in this city in 1893, as follows: " Whitmore
Knaggs, my father, was born in Detroit in 1763, the same year in which
Pontiac tried to cany out his famous plan of driving the English out of
Detroit and the other forts on the western frontier. July 31, 1763, a party
of the Detroit garrison, under Captain Dalzell, made a sortie at Bloody
Run, about two miles above the fort, and were defeated by Pontiac
with great loss. After his triumph, Pontiac invited the leading French
residents, including Peter Descompte Labadie, who was the father of
my mother, to a grand feast in honor of the victory. There was
plenty of fish, flesh and fowl, but no liquors. After the feast was over
Pontiac said to Labadie, ' How did you like the meat ? ' 'It was very
good young beef, was it not?' answerd my grandfather. 'Come here
and I will show you what you have eaten,' said Pontiac. He opened a
sack that was lying on the ground behind him and took out the bloody
head of an English soldier, holding it up by the hair. ' There's the
young beef,' he added with a grin. Labadie took one look, his stom-
ach turned and he immediately ejected everything he had eaten. The
dusky warriors jeered at him and said he was nothing but an old
squaw. This story I often heard Grandfather Labadie tell to strangers
and friends. He described the young beef as very tender and appe-
tizing until Pontiac's revelation."
The coiireiirs de bois, bushlopers or rangers of the woods, were also a
notable factor in the scheme of European colonization. At first there
was a great deal of private trading with the Indians. To check irreg-
ularities the French governors granted licenses to private traders, for
which a fine was paid; these traders at first were superannuated French
army officers, who were given the privilege in return for past services.
In 1688 the number was only twenty-five, but the permits to trade be-
came negotiable paper and a great many social outcasts acquired them.
Those who were not half-breeds were generally of French birth, but
by living with the Indians had virtually become uncivilized. Some-
times they were agents of the great companies who acted under grants
from the French crown, but oftener they were their own masters. At
first they were named as above: coureurs de bois, but afterward they
44
were called merchant voyagers and a few of them, notably Duluth, at-
tained some prominence.
The savages loved ardent spirits and when under its spell would be
more liberal in trading, and so the stock of the coureurs de bois always
included a liberal supply of that demoralizing drink. They transported
it with other goods in canoes, through the lakes and rivers of the North
and West, and over difficult portages, to their destination in the Indian
country. When they reached their trading places they were a law unto
themselves, and, far removed from ecclesiastical and judicial authority,
they were legislators and judges in the wilderness. It is needless to
say that their influence was altogether for evil. The better side of their
character was their dexterity in hunting and trapping, their knowledge
of the languages and customs of the Indian tribes, and their affability
and gayety, which made them popular with the red men. These qual-
ities rendered their services extremely valuable as agents of the French
merchants. They were a hardy race, strong, muscular and well formed,
and dead shots with the rifle. They were neither pagans nor Chris-
tians, and knew enough of the Indian and French religions to be re-
gardless of either. Their ordinary dress was a moleton or blanket
coat, a red cap, a belt of cloth passed over the middle of their bodies
and a loose shirt. Sometimes on their voyages through the lakes and
rivers they wore a brown coat or cloak, with a cape that could be drawn
over their heads like a hood. At other times they wore elkskin trou-
sers, the seams of which were ornamented with fringes, a surtout of
coarse blue cloth reaching to the calf of the leg, a worsted sash of
scarlet fastened around the waist, in which was stuck a broad knife
which was used to dissect the animals taken in hunting, and moccasins
made of buckskin.
It is doubtful if the small companies of explorers and traders who
led the way into the American wilderness, among the bloodthirsty
savages, would have had the courage or the ability to make the ven-
ture had it not been for their reliance upon firearms. Although the
savages were presently supplied with guns and ammunition by the
traders, the greater part of their guns were very crude weapons, made
especially for such patrons. White men were always the superior
marksmen, but the accuracy and range of the old time musket was
fearfully exaggerated in the romances of pioneer days. In the famous
" Leatherstocking Tales " the shooting described by the imaginative
Mr. Cooper is far beyond the fondest dreams of modern riflemen, who
45
are provided with weapons of fivefold range and threefold accuracy, to
say nothing- of the wonderful improvements in ammunition and in the
sighting of guns. Military rifles now have a range of about 3,000
yards ; they are bored and rifled with mathematical precision by costly
machinery, and are fired instantaneously by percussion primers as soon
as the hammer is released. In Cadillac's time the common arm was
the smooth-bore musket or arquebus. The barrels were of plain iron
and made very heavy as a precaution against bursting, and were very
long, as it was believed that extreme length of barrel tended to greater
accuracy and range. The powder was poor stuff compared with mod-
ern powders, and the bullets were cast by hand in moulds. If there
was considerable difference between the diameter of the bore and the
diameter of the bullet, a fit was secured by using a patch of leather
of the required thickness. Calibers were not rated by millimeters or
hundredths of an inch, but by the number of balls required to weigh
one pound. To operate one of the guns the hunter or soldier poured
out a charge of powder from his powder horn into the palm of his
hand, and emptied it into the muzzle of the gun. Selecting a bullet
from his pouch, he applied a greased patch of cloth or buckskin over
the muzzle of the gun, and placing the bullet on top, drove it home
wath his long ramrod. At the breech a hollow plug was let into the
barrel, and attached to this was a powder pan covered with a hinged
plate of steel; the hammer of the gun had jaws for holding a piece of
flint. After the gun had been loaded the hunter poured a little pow-
der into the priming pan, cocked his piece and took aim. At the
descent of the hammer there would be a shower of sparks from the
flint, a dazzling flash from the powder in the pan, and the gun would
go off with a great racket. The range at which any degree of accuracy
could be obtained was about two hundred yards; this was later in-
creased to five hundred yards when the long Kentucky rifle came into
general use. In these days of better weapons, a wise man would hesi-
tate before he would risk his life in the wilderness with no better pro-
tection than such guns as Cadillac's followers possessed. Yet the skill
acquired by the early pioneers in the use of their arms was little short
of marvelous. Such guns and an occasional rifle (for the rifle had not
yet come into general use) were the offensive and defensive arms of
the pioneers. They also provided his table with its supply of meat.
When the savages attacked in such force that the home of the settler
could no longer be defended by the small arms of the household, the
46
entire population of the settlement took refuge in the fort with its log
stockade, its blockhouses and its projecting bastions armed with small
cannon. Heavy artillery, whether loaded with three, four, or six
pound shot, or with bolts and scrap iron, always commanded the
respect of the savages. The thundering report was nearly as effective
as the flying missiles in awing them.
It will be seen that the evolution of artillery had not proceeded far,
for the beginning of the firearms was a small cannon supported on a
hand staff and exploded by applying" a piece of burning tow or a match.
Then came the matchlock, which on pulling the trigger applied a piece
of burning wick to the powder at the vent. Following this came the
Dutch invention called the wheel lock or fire lock, which ignited the
powder by rotating a toothed wheel of steel against a piece of soft iron,
and the next step was the flint lock, which held supremacy for gener-
ations, and which was used exclusively at the battle of Waterloo in 1815.
CHAPTER VII.
What the Pioneers Found at Detroit — Events Contemporaneous with the Found-
ing of the City — Description of the Fauna and Flora of the Region as Described in
Ancient Reports— 1701-1703.
At the beginning of the eighteenth century, while Detroit was being
founded, a fever of speculation, adventure and war possessed Eastern
Europe. Spain, after losing her great Armada, steadily declined in
power. Under the Duke of Alva she had seized and drenched in blood
the Netherlands, but most of the provinces had now thrown off her
yoke and had established the Dutch Republic. The small portion of
the Netherlands remaining to her was about to be lost in the war of
the Spanish Succession. Charles II, the last of the Spanish Haps-
burgs, had died childless, and to secure the support of France, Philip
of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV, had been called to the throne. Eng-
land and the Netherlands opposed this union of interests, and Austria
wanted another Hapsburg prince crowned in Spain. The three made
war upon Spain in 1701, and this conflict, which was called the war of
the Spanish Succession, lasted eight years, during which the Spanish
47
population was reduced from 9,000,000 to less than 6,000,000. Charles
XII of Sweden had just humbled Denmark and had given the Russians
under Peter the Great an inglorious defeat, although outnumbered five
to one. He was advancing upon Poland and Saxony in 1701, Fred-
eric, the Prussian elector, gave considerable money and loaned 10,000
troops to Austria to fight in the war with Spain, and his reward was
the crown of Prussia, which was erected into a kingdom through the in-
fluence of Austria and England. The Duke of Marlborough and Prince
Eugene of Savoy were starting out on the series of splendid cam-
paigns against Spain and France, in which they achieved immortal
glory. Under such pressing demands for troops and money in Europe,
the countries having colonies were compelled for the most part to let
them shift for themselves.
In 1701 William Kidd, the famous pirate chief, closed his career on
the gallows in the city of London. He was a Scotch navigator who in
his earlier days did splendid service for Great Britain, and the colony
of New York had given him a present of ;^150 in token of its appreci-
ation. But love of adventure lured him to ruin, and from preying on
Spanish commerce he soon developed into a scourge of the seas. New
England witchcraft was beginning to die out ; after torturing fifty-five
persons to make them confess that they were witches, and hanging
twenty poor old women for having an alleged intimacy with Satan, the
people of Salem, Mass., were just awakening from their trance of
superstition. Such were the conditions in Europe and the new world,
when Cadillac pitched his camp on the bank of Detroit River.
The founding of the new settlement in the western wilderness re-
quired all the more hardihood since it was evident that the govern-
ment of France could give it but little aid. The ofificers who came
with Captain Cadillac were Capt. Alphonse de Tonty, a' younger
brother of Henry de Tonty, the companion of La Salle, who was next
in command; two lieutenants, Chacornacle and Dugue; a sergeant
named Jacob I'Ommesprou de Mersac; and Antoine, eldest son and
namesake of Cadillac, then nine years of age, who was appointed en-
sign in 1707, when he was sixteen years of age. Jacob Mersac, like
several of the other soldiers, received a grant of land near the fort,
which was afterward known as the Mersac farm, and tradition tells that
in after years when engaged in plowing he always wore his sword by his
side. Jean and Francois Fafard, were the Indian interpreters. Two
priests, Nicholas Constantine del Halle, a Recollect of the Franciscan
48
order, and Francis Vaillant de Gueslis, a Jesuit, also came with the ex-
pedition to afford the consolation of relig-ion to the little colony, the
former as chaplain and the latter as Indian missionary. Cadillac did
not wish to have Jesuits around him, but the influence of the superior
of the order at Quebec was too strong to be overcome. In a letter to
De Callieres, written twelve days after his landing, he described the
scenery and other advantages of the new settlement in a comprehen-
sive and even poetic vein.
"The Detroit/' he says, "is only a canal or river of moderate
breadth and twenty-five leagues in length, through which the sparkling
and pellucid waters of Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron (which are
so many seas of sweet water), flow and glide away gently and with a
moderate current into Lake Erie, in the Ontario or Frontenac, and go
at last to mingle in the River St. Lawrence with those of the ocean.
The banks are so many vast meadows where the freshness of those
beautiful streams keeps the grass always green; these same meadows
are fringed with long and broad avenues of fruit trees, which have
never felt the careful hand of the watchful gardener; and the fruit
trees, young and old, droop under the weight and multitude of their
delicious burden, and bend their branches toward the fertile soil which
has produced them. In this soil so fertile, the ambitious vine, which
has not yet wept under the knife of the industrious vine-dresser, forms
a thick roof with its broad leaves and its heavy clusters over the head
of whatever it twines around, which it often stifles by embracing too
closely. Under these vast avenues you may see assembling in hun-
dreds the shy stag and the timid hind, with the bounding roebuck,
which pick up largely the apples and plums with which the ground is
paved. It is there that the careful turkey-hen calls back her numerous
brood and leads them to gather the grapes; it is there that their big
cocks come and fill their broad and gluttonous crops; the golden
pheasant, the quail, the partridge, the woodcock, the teeming turtle-
dove, swarm in the woods and cover the open country, which is inter-
sected and broken by groves of full grown forest trees, which form a
charming prospect and in itself might sweeten the melancholy hours of
solitude. There the hand of the pitiless mower has never shorn the
juicy grass, on which bisons of enormous height and size fatten. The
woods are of six kinds — walnut trees, white oak, red, bastard ash, ivy,
whitewood trees and cotton trees, but these same trees are straight as
arrows, without curves and almost without branches except near the
49
top, and of enormous size and height. It is from thence that the fear-
less eagle looks steadily at the sun, seeing beneath him wherewith to
satisfy his proudly- armed foot. The fish there are fed and laved in
sparkling and pellucid waters, and are none the less delicious for
the bountiful supply [of them]. There are such large numbers of
swans that the rushes among which they are massed might be taken
for lilies. The gabbling goose, the duck, the teal and the bustard, are
so common here that, in order to satisfy you of it, I will only make use
of the expression of one of the savages. Before I came here I asked
one if there was much game here. He answered, 'There is so much
that they only move aside [long enough] to allow the boat to pass.'
In a word the cHniate is temperate, the air very pure. During the day
there is a gentle wind, and at night the sky, which is always placid,
diffuses cool and sweet influences which cause us to enjoy the be-
nignity of tranquil sleep. If its position is pleasing it is no less im-
portant, for it opens or closes the approach to the most distant tribes
which surround these sweet water seas. It is only the opponents of
the truth who are the enemies of this settlement, so essential to the in-
crease of the glory of the king, to the spread of religion and to the de-
struction of the throne of Baal."
In another letter dated September 25, 1702, he gives more informa-
tion regarding this region, repeating to some extent what he said before
in regard to the fruit bearing trees. "This river or strait of the seas
is covered, both on the mainland and the islands, with large clusters of
trees, surrounded by charming meadows. I have observed there are
nearly twenty different kinds of plums ; there are three or four kinds
of which are very good ; the others are very large and pleasant to look
at, but they have rather tough skins and mealy flesh. The apples are
of medium size ; too acid. There is also a number of cherry trees, but
their fruit is not very good. In places there are mulberry trees, which
bear big black berries; the fruit is excellent and refreshing. There is
also a very large quantity of hazel nuts and filberts ; there are six kinds
of walnuts. The timber of these trees is good for furniture and gun-
stocks. There are also stretches of chestnuts, chiefly towards Lake
Erie. All the fruit trees in general are loaded with their fruit ; and
there is reason to believe that if these trees were grafted, pruned and
well cultivated, their fruit would be much better and might be made
good fruit. There is one tree which is unknown to me, and to all who
have seen it ; its leaves are a vivid green and remain so until the month
50
of January. It has been observed that it flowers in the spring and
toward the end of November, the flowers are white; this tree is a big-
one. There is another tree which is well defended, the prickles of
which are one-half a foot long and pierce the wood like a nail. It bears
a fruit like kidney beans; the leaf is like the capillary plant; neither
animal or man could climb it. That would be good for making fences.
Its grain is very hard; when it has arrived at maturity the wood is very
difflcult to drive a nail in it [the thornapple]. There are also citron
trees which are the same in form and color as the citron of Portugal, but
they are sweeter and smaller [the paw paw]. There is a large number
of them ; they are well preserved. The root of this tree is a very subtle
and deadly poison and it is also a sovereign remedy against snake bites.
It is only necessary to pound it and to apply it to the wound and you
are instantly cured. There are but few snakes in Detroit; they are
very common in the country of the Iroquois. I have seen an herb
pointed out to me by the Iroquois which renders the venom of snakes
innocuous ; perhaps it may have some other use. Fifteen leagues from
Detroit, at the entrance to Lake Erie, inclining to the south southwest,
are boundless prairies which stretch away for about one hundred leagues.
It is there that these mighty oxen [buffalos], which are covered with
wool, find food in abundance. I sent this spring to the Chevalier de
Callieres some hides and wool of these animals, and he sent both to the
directors of the company of the colony to make trial of them, and it has
been found that the discovery will prove a valuable one ; that the hides
may be very usefully employed and the wool used for stockings and
cloth making. There is a number of stags and hinds; they are seen in
hundreds, with roebucks, black bears, otters and other smaller fur-
bearing animals. The skins of these animals sell well. There are also
a number of beavers on this mainland and in the neighborhood. Game
is very common — wild turkey, swans, wild ducks, quails, woodcocks,
pheasants and rabbits. There are so many turkeys that twenty or
thirty could be killed at one shot every time they are met with. There
are also partridges, hazel-hens and a stupendous number of turtle-doves.
As the place is well supplied with animals, the wolves, of which there
are numbers, find abundant food, but it often costs them their skins,
because they sell well also, and this aids in destroying them, because
the savages hunt them. There are wood rats [opossums] which are as
large as rabbits, most of them gray, but there are some seen which are
as white as snow. The female has a pouch under her belly which opens
51
and shuts as she requires, so that sometimes when her little ones are
playing, if the mother finds herself pressed, quickly shuts them up in
her pouch and carries them all away with her at once and gains her re-
treat. I have seen a number of different kinds of birds of rare beauty.
Some have a plumage of a beautiful red fire color, the most vivid it
were possible to see; they have a few shots of black in the tail and at
the tips of their wings, but that is only noticed when they are flying.
I have seen others all yellow, with tails bigger than their bodies, and
they spread out their tails as peacocks do. I have seen others of a sky
blue color, with red breasts; there are some curiously marked like
great butterflies. I have observed that a pleasant warbling proceeds
from all these birds, especially from the red ones with large beaks.
There are many cranes, gray and white, and they stand higher than a
man. The savages value these latter greatly on account of their plum-
age, with which they adorn themselves. In the river of Detroit there
are neither stones or rocks, but on Lake Huron there are fine quarries,
and it is a country wooded like Canada, that is to say, with endless
forests. Houses could be provided and buildings erected of bricks, for
there is earth which is very suitable for this, and fortunately, only five
leagues from the fort there is an island which is very large and is en-
tirely composed of limestone [Stony Island]. We have fish in great
abundance, and it could not be otherwise, for the river is inclosed and
situated between the lake, or rather between as many seas. A thing
which is most convenient for navigation is, that it does not wind at all;
its two prevailing winds are the northeast and southwest. This coun-
try is so temperate, so fertile and so beautiful, that it may justly be
called the earthly paradise of North America, deserves all the care of
the king to keep it up and to attract inhabitants to it, so that a solid
settlement may be formed there which shall not be liable to the usual
vicissitudes of the other posts, in which only a mere garrison is placed."'
In regard to the buffalos which he calls oxen, he says that "he could
not send any of them to France until barges could be built, as they
were too large to be transported in canoes."
Cadillac named the inclosure Fort Pontchartrain, after his friend and
patron, but the settlement itself was always named Detroit, or the
Straits.
A company of one hundred men directed by an energetic and capa-
ble leader can accomplish wonders. Cadillac kept his men at work early
and late, and by the first day of September the green knoll, which had
52
JAMES F. JOY.
probably never felt the imprint of a white man's foot six weeks before,
had been converted into a walled city of extremely rustic pattern, and
shelter had been provided for the settlers and their stores. A walled
city may seem an extravagant term unless comparison is made with the
foundings of older cities. Tradition has it that Romulus, the founder
of Rome, slew his twin brother, Remus, because the latter leaped the
first wall of Rome and scoffed at its weak protection. When Caesar
discovered Paris it was a city of some years standing, yet the walls
inclosed but thirty-seven acres, and as late as the beginning of the
thirteenth century its walls surrounded less than a square mile. The
roots of the first settlement struck deep into the soil and although the
last traces of the stockade have been missing for seventy years, the soil
still reveals the story of the past each time it is disturbed for the erec-
tion of great buildings. In the summer of 1894, 193 years after the
founding of the city, excavations at the corner of Wayne and Larned
streets turned up many relics. Fragments of old muskets, rusty sword
and knife hilts, a mass of rotten high boots, such as were worn by the
French soldiers of the seventeenth century, and a number of three and
four pound cannon balls, were found on the spot, some of them ten
feet or more beneath the surface. They indicate that the military
stores must have been housed in this part of the works, while the pow-
der magazine is supposed to have been located in a pit near the corner
of Griswold and Larned. Fort Pontchartrain had its northern barrier
near the north side of Larned street reaching fnftm Wayne to a point
near Griswold street. It ran down quite close to the river bank, and
one of the large fortified gates must have been near the crossing of
Shelby and Woodbridge streets, the other being on the north side in
the middle of the Larned street front.
Settlers soon came and crowded the little cabins, until they could
erect habitations of their own. Indians arrived in small bands, some
of them being Iroquois, and erected their cabins of bark, back on the
river bank, and following them came the French merchants and the
coureurs de bois. Before the next summer, according to C. M. Burton,
the little colony, situated beyond the verge of civilization, "had a
population of 6,000 souls, mostly Indians, and was the metropolis of
America." No white woman came during the first year, but in the
succeeding years wives and families from Quebec, Montreal and else-
where, rejoined their husbands in Detroit. The buildings were log
huts, generally one story in height with an attic in the roof. The lots
53
on which they stood were quite small, seldom exceeding 25 by 25 feet;
the shops and stores being a trifle larger, and all the space inside the
palisades was probably covered by buildings. The soldiers were
lodged inside the fort, and Cadillac, in order to foster industry, gave
them the use of half arpent spaces outside the inclosure, for gardening
purposes. These spaces fronted on the east side of what is now Ran-
dolph street, between the river and Fort street east. The soldiers'
houses were owned by the commandant, while the houses of the per-
manent merchants, artisans and other citizens, were generally owned
by themselves. No transfers of lands were given until 1704, and the
occupants of real estate probably erected buildings under an agree-
ment to have their titles confirmed in the future.
When Madame Cadillac heard that the fort was ready to give her
shelter, she resolved to leave Quebec and go to her husband, in spite
of the difficulties and dangers which beset the way. It was a journey
of one thousand miles. At Detroit she would be cut off from all
society such as she enjoyed in Quebec. The latter station was con-
sidered safe against any attempt the savages might make upon it, while
the new outpost was not only beset with dangers, but also cut off from
the rest of the world. Her friends tried to persuade her to remain in
Quebec, but she was firm, and Madame Tonty, whose husband was also
at Fort Pontchartrain, declared her intention to accompany her.
Madame Cadillac answered her advisers saying: "A woman who loves
her husband as she should, has no stronger attraction than his com-
pany, wherever he may be; everything else should be indifferent to
her." Cadillac has been censured for being often involved in troubles
caused by his rashness and his prejudices, but whatever his faults he
must have possessed noble traits of character to have inspired the
strong devotion of such a woman. Madame Cadillac brought her son,
James, aged seven years, leaving her two young daughters in the
Ursuline Convent. The two brave women set out from Quebec on
September 10, 1701, in birch bark canoes, with an escort of rude
voyageurs, for a journey of several weeks through the wilderness.
They were paddled up the St. Lawrence, tramping along with their
escort at the several portages, and finally arriving at Frontenac, where
they passed the winter.
Here they found Father Valliant, who was able to tell the ladies
more satisfactor)^ information of their husbands. Early in the spring
they proceeded along the northern shore of Lake Ontario. Another
54
long portage was passed between the mouth of the Niagara River and
Lake Erie, and then the canoes were paddled along the shore to the
mouth of Detroit River. At night the travelers slept in the forest
with the canoes overturned above them for shelter against the rain,
and they were constantly in danger of attack, because the fierce Iro-
quois opposed the founding of Detroit as an encroachment upon their
territory. The glad reception this party received at the fort can well
be imagined. The cannon thundered out a welcome as the canoes
rounded the bend in the river, and the advent of the two ladies caused
a genuine sensation among the aborigines. "The Iroquois," Cadillac
says, "kissed their hands and wept for joy, saying that French women
had never before come willingly to their country." They were re-
ceived at Detroit by all the Indians under arms with many discharges
of musketry, the aborigines being then convinced that the French
wished to make Detroit a post to live in and a flourishing settlement.
Mesdames Cadillac and Tonty were the first white ladies in Detroit and
their list of calling acquaintances must have been quite limited during
the first year or two.
Cadillac at once surveyed the lands, laying out lots and describing
their borders in exact measurement. In some cases these grants be-
came the sources of fortune to modern days, but in every grant
Cadillac reserved to himself certain rights which curiously illustrate
his attempt to establish a sort of feudal system. For instance, all the
grain produced was to be ground at his mill and he exacted an annual
tribute as grand seigneur. From the first, after the pressing needs of
defense and shelter were accomplished, Cadillac directed his efforts to
secure a permanent supply of food. The first wheat was planted on
October 7, 1701, and was reaped in Jul}^, 1702, but the crop did not
fulfill expectations. Another crop, sown in the spring of 1702, was al-
most a failure, but in the summer of 1702 eight arpents, or French
acres, were sown in wheat, and twelve in Indian corn, and these were
good crops. The fifty soldiers also tilled their half-acre lots; the
artisans and traders in the fort cultivated sizable fields outside, and the
the Indians raised abundance of corn. Grape culture was also com-
menced; the woods were full of wild game; and the river teemed
with choice fish. By the end of 1702 the food supply was no longer a
problem. All the industry was accomplished by manual labor, with
the aid of spades and hoes, there being no horses or oxen in the set-
tlement. Cadillac brought three horses and ten head of cattle to De-
55
troit in 1704; two of the horses died, but the survivor, named Colin,
hved for many years. He must have been a strong heavy animal, as
he was used for plowing and hauling loads, and was also rented to the
settlers for these purposes. Other horses and different oxen came
later.
A part of Cadillac's projects, in connection with the plan of building
up a colony, was to induce his soldiers to marry the Indian maidens
and thus form a strong bond of kinship and mutual interest between
the aborigines and the French. To this end and for the purpose of
getting even with the Jesuits at Mackinac, he endeavored from the
first to bring the Hurons from that place to Detroit. In conferring
with Father Valliant on the subject he met a decided refusal to co-
operate, as the priest would not look with favor on any scheme that
would disrupt or injure the Jesuit mission at that place. As a result of
this disagreement Father Valliant left Detroit about two months after
his arrival and went to Fort Frontenac, which was on the present site
of Kingston, Ontario. Father Superior Bouvard at Quebec, Father
Etienne de Carheil at Mackinac, and all the other Jesuits also opposed
Cadillac in this plan, and the project of founding a Jesuit mission at
Detroit failed for a time. In 1728, however, after Cadillac had re-
turned to France, the " Huron Mission of Detroit " was founded by the
Jesuits, and it was located on the other side of the river at Sandwich,
opposite Detroit.
The principal thoroughfare of old Detroit was St. Anne street, which
ran east and west and was about thirty feet wide. Its northern line
was nearly on the northern side of Jefferson avenue, extending from
Griswold street to a point about thirty feet west of Shelby street. Near
its easterly end on the north side, was the church, a little west of where
Ives & Son's bank is now situated, at the northwest corner of Jefferson
avenue and Griswold street. South of St. Anne street was a parallel
thoroughfare named St. Louis street, on which both the northerly and
southerly tiers of lots were all on what is now Jefferson avenue. Another
parallel street north of St. Anne, was named St. Joachim street, which
lay between Jefferson avenue and the alley on the north. This street
extended like the others from Griswold to Shelby streets; these streets
were about twenty feet wide. Two other streets ran north and south,
and extended from St. Louis to St. Joachim street, across St. Anne
street, and there was another short thoroughfare midway between the
two, named Recontre street. Realizing these spaces and measurements
56
and the contrast between them and the wide streets of modern Detroit,
it might be thought that the land was extremely valuable, but the
contrary was the fact. The inhabitants were huddled together for pro-
tection within the small stockade, and when land was sold or rented
the prices paid were principally for safety from the savages or the
British, and also for the privilege of conducting trade or other voca-
tions.
The population of the first year, owing to causes hereinafter related,
was not maintained and was not equaled until one hundred and fifty
years later, but as more room was desirable, the inclosure was enlarged
from time to time under French, British and American rule, until 1812,
when it was surrendered by Hull. It then comprised all the space on
the river front between Brush and Wayne streets and back to Larned
street. From these eastern and western points the line of palisades
inclined inward to the earthworks of the fort, the center of which was
at the present intersection of Fort and Shelby streets, with angles
reaching out half a square in four directions.
In order to hamper the development of Detroit, the Jesuits of Mack-
inaw, in 1701, planned the establishment of a post at Fort St. Joseph,
on the St. Joseph River on Lake Michigan, where special inducements
would be made to settlers and Indians for the purpose of drawing away
those who had already settled at Detroit. Many had been persuaded
by Cadillac to leave Mackinaw and come to his post. Tonty, who was
associated with Cadillac and pretended to be his friend, united with
Fathers Marmet and Davenant, of Mackinaw, for the promotion of this
scheme. When ii failed Tonty begged Cadillac's pardon and it was
granted, but he was soon in another scheme which had for its purpose
the removal of Cadillac and the substitution of himself as commandant.
During this period, the first two years of the settlement, each party
to the controversy made bitter accusations against the other. The Jes-
uits said that they would display a more Christian spirit than the
vengeful Cadillac, by laying all their resentment at the foot of the
crucifix. Cadillac retorted sarcastically that the deposit was a mere
convenience, as the vocation of the Jesuit priests called them con-
stantly to the foot of the crucifix, and they could therefore take up
their resentments again at any time. In one of his lengthy attacks on
the Jesuits, he says they " wished him to go down under the waters of
vengeance and persecution, but as long as I have for my protection
Justice and Merit, I shall float and swim over the waves like the nest
57
of the ingenious Icing-fisher. I shall try to conduct myself better and
better, and to walk by the brightness and the light of these two illus-
trious patronesses. Without them I should long ago have been unable
to bear up against the torrent. It is true that sometimes raising my
eyes to heaven, I cry in the weakness of my faith, * Sancta Frontenac,
ora pro me* (Pray for me, Holy Frontenac)."
In 1701 beaver skins had depreciated in price and were a drug in the
market, and Intendant Champigny cautioned Cadillac to deal as little
in that kind of fur as possible and to trade for other skins that would
bring good prices. The skins of stags and hinds were then worth four-
teen livres ; roebucks up to six livres ; bears up to ten livres ; others five
livres and wildcats thirty -two sols or one livre and seven sols.
CHAPTER VIII.
Plots and Counterplots between Cadillac and His Enemies — The Merchants of
Montreal Oppose the Development of Detroit for Fear of Its Future Rivalry — Detroit
was a Great Beaver Region.
Cadillac's report to Pontchartrain of the results of his first year's
work was as follows :
" All that I have the honor to state to you has been done in one year, without its
having cost the king a sol, and without costing the company more than it ought,
and in twelve months we have put ourselves in a position to do without provisions
from Canada forever, and all this undertaking was carried out with three months'
provisions, which I took when I set out from Montreal, and which were consumed
in the course of the journey. This proves whether Detroit is a desirable or unde-
sirable country. Besides this nearly six thousand savages of different tribes win-
tered there, as every one knows. This is the paradise of North America."
While Cadillac was busily engaged in furthering the interests of the
colony, he received on July 19, 1702, a notification that the post had
been ceded to the "Company of the Colony of Canada." This was un-
welcome and disagreeable news to a man whose fortunes had been
shattered by war, and who was then bending every energy to repair
them by building up the new colony. In one of his letters, written
subsequently, he stated that if he had known that the company was to
have the trade of Detroit, he would not have undertaken its establish-
58
ment. He had doubtless supposed that the trade of the new settle-
ment would g-o to him, just as the trade of the Illinois country had
been granted to La Salle. The De Caens had also been given the
monopoly of trade in New France when Frontenac was governor, and
they were succeeded by the West Indian Company in 1664. Both lost
money in these enterprises and their charters were revoked. In 1699
the principal citizens of Quebec, one of whom was Cadillac, sent a dep-
utation to Versailles to solicit from Louis XIV the monoply of the
beaver trade, and this company was granted that privilege after Cadil-
lac founded Detroit. By the terms of the agreement the Company of
the Colony was to have the exclusive control of the fur trade of Forts
Pontchartrain and Frontenac, and were required to finish the forts and
buildings belonging thereto, and keep them in good repair, and to sup-
port the commandant and one other officer. The necessary garrison
was to be maintained at the king's expense. This was the system on
which French colonial enterprises were conducted at that time. Colo-
nizing was always an expensive undertaking, and neither the gov-
ernment of New France, with its sparse population, nor the mother
country, impoverished by European wars, could afford to support such
undertakings alone. The method used was simply to grant trade
privileges to companies and provide that the latter should pay a con-
siderable portion of the expenses.
Three days after receiving the notice Cadillac left Detroit on July 21,
1702, for Quebec, where he made arrangements with the company, A
contract was drawn up by which the company agreed to pay him 2,000
livres ($400) and DeTonty 1,333 livres ($266) per year, and the neces-
sary supplies for their families. He was pledged not to traffic with the
savages and to prevent, as far as possible, all other traders, including
the English, from trading at the post. He was also given charge of the
books of the company and was treasurer of its surplus funds, and given
power to prevent frauds by the employees. He undertook to carry out
the purposes of his office, and this finally brought him into collision
with the company. In consideration of the monopoly of the trade of
the post of Detroit, the company bound itself to reimburse Cadillac for
the expenses he incurred there, consisting not only of the goods which
had been sent there for trading, but also of the provisions, stores and
tools, boats bought for the journey, the construction of the fort, and
the wages of those who were serving at that post, but on condition of
his making a reduction of 15,000 livres, which his majesty had granted
59
for the construction of the fort. Also to provide food for the officers
in command there, so that they might have their pay clear; to have the
provisions and clothes of the soldiers conveyed there at fifteen per
cent, profit, which otherwise would have cost as much again ; and also
to distribute to poor families of rank the sum of 6,000 livres instead of
the licensed traders. The company was also obliged by the orders of
Governor de Callieres, and his intendant, De Beauharnois, to restrict
their trade to the forts at Frontenac and Detroit, because the savages
could easily come to these two places. "If it were permitted to this
company to take goods to them [the savages] it would entirely ruin the
trade of the settlers and the merchants of Montreal, who only get a
bare subsistence on the little trade done there at present."
In November, 1702, intrigues were already at work at the new set-
tlement. The Hurons at Detroit, together with some Indians from
the Sault, went to Orange (Albany) in response to an invitation from
the English to come and trade with them, and then the chiefs at De-
troit went to Tonty and said if they could not get goods cheaper at
Detroit that their young men would go and trade with the English at
Orange or at some meeting place. In communicating this unwelcome
newstoPontchartrain, Governor de Callieres said that he greatly feared
that these intrigues might have disastrous consequences to the colony.
At the end of 1702 the Hurons had cleared up about two hundred acres
of land, and their village and fort was on the west of Fort Pontchar-
train. The Appenagos or Loups, generally called Wolves, had a vil-
lage and fort on the east side of the French fort, the land, however,
being granted by Cadillac with the condition that they would remove
when requested, as he expected to use the space in the future as a
common. He characterized them as peaceable and caressing, and that
they even tried to learn the French language. About a mile and a
half above the fort was a settlement and fort inhabited by four tribes
of Ottawas. So that in 1702 within the space of one league there
were four forts and four hundred men bearing arms, with their fam-
ilies, beside the garrison.
In the spring of 1703 a fire broke out in the fort which did consider-
able damage. The mystery surrounding its origin led Cadillac to be-
lieve that it was the work of the Jesuits, and he wrote the following
account to Count Pontchartrain :
"The fort was set on fire, the blaze having been started in a barn, which was
flanked by two bastions and was full of corn and other crops. The flames by a
60
strong wind burned down the church, the house of the Recollet, that of de Tonty
and mine, which cost me a loss of 400 pistoles [$800J, which I could have saved
if I had been willing to let the company's warehouse burn and the king's ammuni-
tion. I even had one hand burnt, and lost for the most part all my papers in the
fire. We have never been able to ascertain who it was set fire to the barn, though
we may be able to obtain something about it hereafter. All the tribes settled at
Detroit assert that it was a strange savage who did the deed, or rather they say some
Frenchman who has been paid for doing this wicked act. God only knows."
In this conflagration the church records were destroyed; they were
not very extensive to be sure, but they doubtless contained the record
of the birth and death of one of Cadillac's children, as well as the
birth and death of a child of Tonty. Years afterward a settler named
Campau told Governor Vaudreuil that one of Tonty's factotums, a
soldier named De Ville, had started the fire.
C. M. Burton fixes the probable site of Cadillac's home on what is
now the north side of Jefferson avenue, between Griswold and Shelby
streets, about where the old Masonic hall is situated, on the ground
now covered by the buildings Nos. 133, 13o and 137 Jefferson avenue.
The resident Indians realized that Cadillac was a friend in need and
helped stay the progress of the flames. After the fire was over they
presented him with one hundred bushels of corn, and also furnished
him with all the grain necessary for the support of the troops at the
usual price.
Still later in 1703 a party of fifteen Illinois braves appeared at the
settlement with the object of destroying it. They were discovered be-
fore they did any harm, and were at once captured and whipped at the
post. Cadillac then sent four of them back to their tribe, and through
them concluded a treaty of peace. An outbreak in which Cadillac ex-
hibited diplomacy of a high order occurred shortly afterward. A band
of Miamis from Auyatonan attacked the Detroit Indians and killed an
Ottawa, two Hurons and a Potawatomie. This raised the resentment
of the local Indians, and they immediately organized for the war path,
but Cadillac realized that an Indian war would cripple or ruin the set-
tlement, and he persuaded them to wait for a few days. He then
went to the camp of the Miamis at Auyatonan, and told them that if
they did not satisfy the friends of the murdered braves, that the
French would deal with them severely. The latter sent several chiefs
to Detroit and after a parley peace was declared for the time being.
In the little settlement under French rule the street scenes were
imique, showing a strange mingling of civilization and barbarism.
61
Along the banks of the river could be seen the Indian birch bark
canoes turned bottom up and sheltering the red man and his children,
now on a trading visit. Beside the canoes were often tents or tepees
made of the same material, to afford additional shelter. On the nar-
row streets were the French soldiers of the garrison, clad in gay blue
uniforms with white facings and three-cornered chapeaux ; the Recollect
fathers, clad in black cassocks, with the crucifix hanging from the
waist; the coureiir de bois, with his blue blanket coat and red cape; the
Stolid Indian awaiting the disposal of his peltries, which he had
brought from his hunting grounds hundreds of miles away; the sober
merchant of sober garb and gait, as he passed on his way to the beach
where the peltries lay ; and the gay young women, wives and daugh-
ters of the merchants and army officers, who were the aristocracy of
the post, radiant in silks and satins of fashions which were in vogue in
Paris two years before, and had been imported to Quebec the previous
year.
La Hontan, a French officer who was commandant of a fort on Lake
Ontario during the seventeenth century, gives an interesting account
of the way the Indians traded with the French while the latter were
rulers of the Northwest. His "Journal " was first published in 1703,
and there were several editions in later years. "When the Indians
accumulated a sufficient supply of peltries, they loaded them in bark
canoes and set forth for the market. Arrived at their destination they
encamped some four or five hundred yards from the town, unloaded
their canoes and camped beside them. Next day they generall}^ waited
on the commandant or highest person in authority, and had an audience
in a public place. The French ruler would sit in a chair and the Indians
on the ground with pipes in their mouths. Presently one of the orators
would stand up and make a speech, saying that his party had come to
renew their friendship with the French ; that they wished to promote
the interests of the latter; that they knew their goods were valuable,
and that the French goods given in exchange were not so costly or de-
sirable; that they wanted to exchange their furs for powder and ball
and guns and blankets and other articles. With the arms and ammu-
nition they proposed to hunt great quantities of beavers, or to fight the
Iroquois, if the latter disturbed the French settlement. Then they
gave a belt of wampum, which was several strings of shells or an im-
itation of the same in crockery, to the person in authority, together
with some skins, and claimed his protection in case any of their goods
62
were stolen, or for any abuse that might be committed upon them in
the place. The ruler would answer in a very civil speech, in which he
assured them of his protection and made some presents in return. Then
the conference was over and the savages returned to their temporary
camp. Next morning, with their slaves, if they had any, they would
carry the skins to the stores of the merchants, and bargain with them
for clothes, blankets, axes, powder, ball, etc. The inhabitants (except
in the early days of New France when the big companies had a monop-
oly of the trade) were permitted to traffic with the Indians and exchange
goods with them, but spirituous liquors were barred, as the Indians
when drunk were liable to quarrel, rob and kill. After the trading was
finished the savages retired to their villages." "The whole of New
France was a vast ranging ground for the Indian tribes, who roamed
over it in all the listless indolence of their savage independence ; for
the Jesuit missionaries, garbed in black cassocks, who strove to gain
the influence of the red men for both the church and the French gov-
ernment ; for a theater of important military operations ; and for a grand
mart where the valuable furs of the region were collected for shipment
to France, under a commercial system originally projected by Cardinal
Richelieu."
DETROIT THE HOME OF THE BEAVER.
According to that shrewd observer and able writer, the late Bela
Hubbard, that timid animal, the beaver, led to the colonization of Can-
ada and the Northwest. In honor of the animal's memory, the arms of
Canada bear its image, and the early arms of Quebec and Montreal did
it like honor. Bryant's history says: " The beaver was a better friend
to the early colonists of Massachusetts than the cod, although the cod-
fish still hangs in the State House in Boston as the emblem of com-
mercial prosperity, while the beaver lingers only in tradition, where
the remains of an embankment across some secluded meadow marks
the site of an ancient beaver dam." In Hubbard's " Memorials of Half
a Century," the writer says:
"The region between Lake Erie and the Saginaw valley was one of the great
beaver trapping grounds. The Huron, the Chippewa, the Ottawa and even the fierce
Iroquois from beyond Lake Ontario, by turns sought this region in large numbers
from the earliest historic times. It is a region peculiarly adapted to the wants of
the beaver. To a great extent level, it is intersected by small water courses which
have but a moderate flow. At the head waters and small inlets of these streams,
the beaver established his colonies ; here he dammed the stream, setting back the
63
water over the flat lands, and creating ponds which were his habitation. Not one or
two, but a series of such dams were constructed along each stream so that very ex-
tensive surfaces became covered with the flood. The trees were killed and the land
was converted into a chain of ponds and marshes. In time— by nature's recuperative
process— the annual growth and decay of aquatic plants— these filled up with muck
or peat, with occasional deposits of bog lime, and the ponds and swales became dry
again. Illustrations of this beaver-made country are numerous in our immediate
vici""nity. In a semicircle of twelve miles about Detroit, having the river as a base
and embracing about 100,000 acres, fully one-fifth part consists of marshy tracts and
prairies which had their origin in the work of the beaver. A little further west
nearly one whole township of Wayne county is of this character."
One reason why the Iroquois opposed the settlement at Detroit was be-
cause the French were encroaching upon their beaver-trapping grounds,
and this encroachment was put in its worst possible light by the Brit-
ish traders who plotted to keep the French out. France received from
Canada between the years 1675-85, 895,581 pounds of beaver skin.s,
averaging 89,588 pounds a year, and this rich trade excited the envy
of the British trader. A good skin weighed about one pound, and
under the name of a castor became the unit of value. It was so named
because castor Canadensis is the zoological term for the North Ameri-
can or Canadian beaver. A good beaver skin or castor, was worth
aboitt a dollar, and all other fur skins were related to it in value. The
old Hudson Bay company issued a money counter called a castor in the
form of a piece of wood, appropriately stamped or carved, and would
pay the Indians for their beaver or other furs with them, and the sav-
ages could buy what they wished in the company's storehouse with this
wooden money. A castor, or its equivalent, was thus often exchanged
for a good hunting knife in the early days, and a greater quantity would
be given for a cheap gun and ammunition. It would seem at first
glance that the white man had all the best of it, which is true from the
financial standpoint, but while the traders were piling up fortunes from
the sale of furs, the Indians were engaged in self-preservation. The
Iroquois of the East were being supplied with weapons by the British,
and it was absolutely necessary that the Algonquin and other northern
Indians should secure the same kind of arms, and throw away their
bows and arrows. Their necessities were exactly the same as those of
the United States government to-day. An iron clad battleship is a
piece of mechanism which costs $2,500,000, and the chances are that it
will never be used, but in order to preserve peace and the national
honor the money must be spent simply because other nations are arm-
64
CHARLES DUCHARME.
ing themselves in the same fashion. In 1765 under English rule beaver
skins brought two shillings and sixpence a pound; otter skins were six
shillings each, and martens one shilling and sixpence. Ten beaver
skins were given in exchange for a stroud blanket, eight for a white
blanket, two for a pound of powder, one for a pound of shot, one for a
knife, twenty for a gun, two for an axe of one pound weight. On rare
occasions a little Quebec currency was seen at Detroit and the other
western posts, but money did not come into use until the New York
currency was brought into the West.
The French settlers were ever anxious to make Detroit an important
trading post and to secure the good will of the natives, but the minds
of the savages were made suspicious by the scheming traders, who
whispered in their ears: " Beware of these men who come among you
to build forts; they will tell you that they are your brothers who come
to trade and make you happy; they are deceiving you; they build
forts because they intend to make war upon you ; they place cannon so
they can kill you when they wish to do so. They will trade with you
if you will let them, but their guns and their knives and blankets are
not good, and they will cheat you in trading; they want not your furs,
but your country, and they will drive you away as you drive the fat
buffalo in the fall. We trade with you fairly and we build no forts
against you."
After two years of negotiating a band of Hurons arrived in Detroit
from Mackinac, and Cadillac could not conceal his exultation. "Thirty
Hurons of Michillimackinos arrived here on the 28th of June, 1703;
there remained only about twenty-five at Michillimackinos. Father
Carheil, who is missionary there, remains always firm. I hope this
fall to pluck the last feather out of his wing and I am persuaded that
this obstinate old priest will die in his parish without a single parish-
ioner to bury him."
It was a pathetic picture which is thus suggested by the worldly and
masterful commandant. The old priest, true to his obligations to God
and morality, remaining steadfast while his flock were deserting him
to obtain brandy and become wicked and demoralized at the new fort.
And yet the Indian trade, which was the sole basis of the trade of the
European colonies and was necessary to their existence, followed
wherever strong drink could be obtained. It was either French brandy
or English rum, there was no alternative, and between them the
aborigines were ground as between the upper and nether millstone to
65
fragments. In 1703 the Sauteurs and Mississaguez came to Detroit,
and incorporating with each other, by the advice of Cadillac, formed
another village near the fort on the river; also several households and
families of the Miamis and some Nepissirineens, the former incorpo-
rating themselves with the Hurons and the latter with the Appenagos
or Loups (Wolves). Also, as before mentioned, thirty Hurons left the
Mackinac mission and settled at Detroit. In the same year the Otta-
was and Kiskakowas also promised to come from Mackinac. In one of
his letters about the opposition of the Jesuits, dated Fort Pontchar-
train, August 31, 1703, Cadillac says : " Can it be believed that I should
have been willing without powerful reasons to thwart any Jesuits or
that I should have taken it into my head to attack that formidable so-
ciety? I have not lived so long without knowing full well how danger-
ous it is to cross their path. ... I am doing my utmost to make
them my friends, truly wishing to be theirs, but if I dare say so, all
impiety apart, it would be better to sin against God than against them,
for on the one hand pardon is received for it ; while on the other, even
a pretended offense is never forgiven in this world, and never perhaps
in the other, if their influence were as great as it is in this country."
The Company of the Colony proved to be a rapacious corporation.
They commenced by cutting down by one-half the prices paid in goods
to the Indians for their peltries, and treated the aborigines badly in
other respects, Cadillac wrote in the latter part of 1702 to Pontchar-
train that the company was disgusted with the colony, as they were
losing trade and money, and said if its rights and privileges were
turned over to him that he would make Detroit flourish. The com-
pany had told him that they had lost 12,297 livres 17 sols, but that it
had really made 20,000 livres profit. In criticising th-e methods of the,
company he showed that their goods brought 200 per cent, profit. Of
the powder in stock at a certain date — 2,015 pounds costing 21 sols per
pound — each pound was exchanged for the skin of a beaver, roebuck,
otter, stag or bear; one and a half pounds of lead, costing six sols per
pound, was exchanged for a beaver skin ; tobacco, costing 27 sols per
pound, was exchanged at the rate of three-quarters of a pound for a
beaver skin. It was then shown that the profit on powder was 200 per
cent. ; on lead 700 per cent. ; and on tobacco 300 to 700 per cent.
About this time (1703) Cadillac was much disquieted by the desertions
of his soldiers. After two years only twenty-five remained of the orig-
inal force of fifty, and these were afterward reduced still more in num-
66
ber. In his report to Pontchartrain he represented that some of the
deserters wished to come back, giving as their reasons for leaving that
Governor Callieres had promised that their term of enlistment was for
three years; that they were overwhelmed with work, and saw all the
profits go to a company that treated them badly; also that they had
been promised lands and had not received them.
The settlers were generally healthy, but sometimes the dreaded
small pox made its appearance. In 1703 it came to Mackinaw and car-
ried off a great many of the aborigines. Its ravages filled the Indians
with terror, and Cadillac with characteristic shrewdness turned their
panic to good account. " You die of small-pox because you remain at
Mackinaw instead of coming to Detroit," he said to some Chippewas
from the north. " If you persist in remaining there against my wishes
I will send something more deadly than small-pox among you." In
1732 and in the winter of 1733-34 there were also numerous cases of
small-pox in Detroit, and many were fatal.
CHAPTER IX.
Cadillac Quells a Conspiracy — Agents of the Company of the Colony Detected in
Stealing— Their Friends Support Them— Cadillac Summoned to Montreal for Trial.
In 1703 Cadillac discovered that the company's agents and Tonty,
his second in command, were guilty of gross mismanagement and rob-
bery. The Company of the Colony was managed by a board of direc-
tors, who appointed a number of their relatives to lucrative clerkships.
Director Lotbiniere appointed Arnaud, his wife's son-in-law, and Mon-
seignot, a brother-in-law of Arnaud; other clerks were Chateleraut, De
Meute, Nolan and Desnoyer, who were relatives of other directors. It
is evident that Cadillac was desirous of getting back the control of the
trade of the settlement and he naturally watched the affairs of the com-
pany, both as a matter of duty and for future advantage. He found
that Arnaud and Nolan were charging exorbitant prices for powder,
ball and tobacco ; had screwed down the price of peltries very low, and
that Tonty was in league with them. Cadillac denounced the robbers
both to the company and to Governor Yaudreuil, and among his
67
specific allegations were that they had nineteen packages of furs con-
cealed in a hut in the Huron village and 118 other packages hidden in
the company's warehouse, which had not been accounted for, and
which were valued at 14,000 crowns, or about $15,400. When Vau-
dreuil received the communication he consulted with Lotbiniere, who
was his uncle, and also with Intendent Beauharnois. Lotbiniere wrote
a letter to Cadillac asking him to hush the matter up, and promising
to arrange the matter amicably without scandal, but Cadillac would
not be silenced, and finally an investigating committee was sent to De-
troit. It consisted of Vencelot, a relative of a director; Lovigny, a
brother in-law of Nolan; and Chateleraut, a relative of Lovigny — all
friends of the accused. Of course such a commission could only bring
in a report favorable to the accused and against Cadillac, but it did
not stop at that. The report charged that the commandant and a
clerk named Radisson had been guilty of selling the company's prop-
erty in trade for furs on their own account; that the commandant had
used violence toward Chief Clerk Desnoyer by locking him up for three
hours, and that he had incited the Indians to demand the dismissal of
Desnoyer and to object to the removal of furs from the fort until the
warehouse was filled with goods, and until all the residents had a right
to trade with them.
Cadillac was then summoned by Vaudreuil to come to Quebec, and
left for that place on September 29, 1704. On the same day Lieuten-
ant Bourgmont left Quebec for Detroit to take his place. No sooner
was Cadillac gone than the thrifty Tonty sold nearly all the powder
and ball to the Indians, and thus left the fort in great danger. When
Cadillac arrived in Quebec he was arrested on the instance of Lot-
biniere, and remained in durance for two days, when he was released,
presumably on bail. The trial took place in the Chateau St. Louis,
before the intendant, ten months afterward, in June, 1705. Cadillac's
defense was irresistible, and he was triumphantly acquitted, but his
defense was not invulnerable. He claimed that the directors were per-
fectly satisfied with him until the close of 1703; but Count Pontchar-
train, writing under date of July 14, 1704, says that he received at the
same time with Cadillac's letter of August 30, 1703, a series of com-
plaints from the directors of the company; and again, answering the
charges of inducing the Indians to demand the dismissal of Desnoyer,
Cadillac says: "It is an absurd subterfuge to say that the savages de-
manded the dismissal so soon [three days] after the arrival of Desnoyer. "
Yet in the same letter he says that Desnoyer, having arrived on the fifth,
on the eighth the savages demanded his removal, presenting a belt.
His trouble with Desnoyer is thus explained by himself. A soldier
of the garrison, who had deserted, was killed by an Onondaga Indian
while on his way through the wilderness to Fort Frontenac. The
friendly Indians, to the number of about one hundred, organized to
avenge the soldier's death, and asked Cadillac that seven or eight
Frenchmen might be allowed to go with them. He acceded to their
request and ordered Tonty to command eight good men of the em-
ployees of the company, and- to have provisions and ammunition served
to them. Desnoyer, the head clerk, said that this could not be done
without his permission, maintaining that Cadillac had no power to de-
tach the company's emplo3'ees on the king's service. Tonty, who
thought that Cadillac's term of office would be short and that he would
succeed him, said that he did not believe that he (Cadillac) had the
power to order such matters. This naturally enraged Cadillac, and he
had Desnoyer put in prison — the sergeant's quarters — for three hours.
All this time Cadillac was corresponding with his friend. Count Pont-
chartrain; his letters had two main strains; one was bitter denunciation
of his enemies; and the other was laudation of himself, together with
application for a n:arquisate and for supreme control of the trade of
Detroit and Mackinac.
When he was acquitted at Quebec by Beauharnois he haughtily re-
fused to accept the verdict, claiming that the intendant had no juris-
diction over the case In a letter from Pontchartrain to Cadillac, dated
at Paris, September, 1705, he was directed to remain at Quebec until
further orders. During the time Tonty was commandant at Detroit,
in 1704, the Ottawa chiefs were persuaded to come to Albany, where
the British gave them brandy and many presents, at the same time
assuring them that the French were established at Detroit for the pur-
pose of cheating them out of all their possessions. The chiefs returned
and told their people, who believed the story. An attempt was made
to fire the fort, but the vigilance of the French defeated it. Later a
war party made a successful raid in the territory of the Iroquois and
returned with a number of prisoners; their success made them bold
and they assumed a hostile attitude in front of the fort. To keep them
from becoming dangerous Tonty sent Sieur de Vincennes, his lieuten-
ant, against them with a company of soldiers, and rescued the prison-
ers, after which they drove the Ottawas to a respectful distance.
69
Although Cadillac recommended the marriage of French soldiers to
Indian maidens, and was hopeful of good consequences to result there-
from, the soldiers themselves did not see fit to contract such matri-
monial alliances. The only case on record of a marriage of this sort
was that of Peter Roy. Father Denissen, commenting on the above,
says: "These vigorous pioneers did not shape their love affairs on the
utilitarian plan. The young men grow lonesome in the wilderness and
their thoughts would wander back to the girls they left behind them.
Permission was readily granted to any one who wanted to return to
Lower Canada to secure a bride. According as these treasures were
imported to Detroit, the place grew more civilized and the inhabitants
felt more at home and contented. The French of Detroit never inter-
married with the Indians to any extent; there have been a few excep-
tional cases, but such marriages were rare, and because so rare, they
were all the more noticed. No bride suits the French heart as well as
the frank, modest, polite, charming French maiden, who has the de-
sirable faculty to grace her home as a queen and bring happiness to
her surroundings."
This statement of Father Denissen, who is perhaps the most accom-
plished genealogist of the day, is all the more valuable, as one or
more prominent writers have asserted that several leading Detroiters
and their families were descended from French soldiers and their In-
dian wives.
After Cadillac was arrested he prepared himself for the trial with all
the resources at his command, one of which was the writing of an im-
aginary conversation between himself and Count Pontchartrain, the
French colonial minister, in which the points of the controversy be-
tween himself and the company, or at least as many as served his pur-
pose, were brought forward, and in which, of course, he cleared him-
self triumphantly. These documents, among other papers of Cadillac,
were preserved, and a large collection of them was made by General
Cass, while United States minister to France. In after years Mrs. E.
M. Sheldon embodied these papers in "The Early History of Michi-
gan," which was published in 1856, and this work and episode for
many years was quoted as authority by writers of Michigan, including
such an able and discriminating writer as Judge J. V. Campbell. In
her work Mrs. Sheldon assumes that Count Pontchartrain had come to
Quebec and there held the conversations with Cadillac at the Chateau
of St. Louis in that city. It was only in 1890 that this curious mistake
70
was discovered by R. R. Elliott, of Detroit, when he submitted his
manuscript on the Catholic history of Detroit to the late Dr. Gilmary
Shea, the historian. Shea answered that Pontchartrain was never in
America, and that Cadillac's papers should always be corroborated
with contemporary documents before being- accepted. The matter was
also referred to the late Pierre Margry, the French archivist and his-
torian, who agreed with Dr. Shea. Margry said that such conversa-
tions were not uncommon in literature. " Fontenelle published dia-
logues of the dead," he said. " Cadillac imagined a dialogue of people
very much alive, but living far away from each other. It was original
in management and piquant."
In one of his answers to one of those imaginary questions Cadillac
says: " I confess that the offers of the British traders at Orange are a
great attraction to the Indians, but experience shows us that the sav-
ages who are round about Quebec, Three Rivers and Montreal, know
perfectly well that their furs sell better with the English, and that they
give them goods cheaper, yet they do all their trade with us. Several
reasons engage them to this: The first is that each savage, taking one
with another, kills only fifty or sixty beavers a year, and as he is near
the Frenchman he borrows from him, and is obliged to pay in propor-
tion on his return from hunting. Out of the little which remains to
him he is compelled to make some purchase for his family, and he finds
himself unable to go to the English because his remaining furs are not
worth the trouble of the longer journey. A second reason is that they
receive many flattering attentions from the French, who make them
eat and drink with them, and in fact they contrive matters so well that
they never let their furs escape. The desire to go to the English al-
ways exists in them, but they are skillfully reduced so that they are
unable to put it into execution. It is for this reason, if Detroit is not
settled, you will see, my Lord, all the savages of that district go to the
English, or invite them to come and settle among them."
Question — Have you not also some other reason? [for recommending
a settlement at Detroit].
Answer — Excuse me, it cannot be disputed that our savages used to
carry on their hunting only to the north of Lake St. Clair; but through
this post they now carry it on as far as 200 leagues south of Lake Erie,
inclining toward the sea. These furs which used to form part of the
English trade are now carried into the colony by the savages.
Question — What skins are obtained in those places?
71
Answer — The skins o£ deer, roe, elk, roebuck, black bears, bisons,
wolves, wildcats, otters, beaver and other small skins. [In 1701 the
reports show that beaver skins were not much used, and they had little
commercial value. — Ed.] These skins are now in request. Skins of
the deer and roe bring sixteen livres each ; those of the elk up to
twenty livres; black bears ten, roebuck five livres, and other skins in
proportion.
Question — Can not some means be found of employing the savages
in hunting for them instead of the beaver, which has lost its reputation
as merchandise and is burdensome to France because there is no de.
mand for it?
Answer — It will be easy to so employ the savages provided they are
supplied with goods to the value of the skins. This will be an in-
fallible way to create a demand for beaver in the kingdoms, since in-
stead of 130,000, which are received every year at the office in Quebec,
only about 70,000 will be received each year. I am not speaking of
the beaver of the Bay of Canada.
Question — Apparently Father Valliant contributed greatly by his ex-
hortations to advancing the work at Detroit.
Answer — He exerted himself for this so well that, if the soldiers and
Canadians had believed him, they would have set out after two days
to return to Montreal on the promise that this father made them, that
he would get their wages paid to them by the intendant for the whole
year, although they had been employed but six weeks.
In another of these imaginary conversations he discusses the Company
of the Colony as follows:
Question [by Count Pontchartrain] — I could not dispense with grant-
ing the trade of Detroit to the Company of the Colony, which promised
me to do everything in its power to make the settlement a success.
Answer — If you had known its power you would have hoped for
nothing from it ; it is the most beggarly and chimerical company that
ever existed. I had as lief see Harlequin emperor of the moon. It
was this company that entirel)^ upset my scheme by consistently op-
posing your intentions in an underhand manner, the whole being cun-
ningly managed by the Jesuits of that country.
In one instance Cadillac himself confesses the nature of these imaginary
conversations — a fact which has been generally overlooked. He makes
complaint that his letters have been opened, and then puts these words
in the mouth of Count Pontchartrain :
72
Question— What is this you tell me? Is it really true that there was
any one audacious enough to open the letters you addressed to me? Do
they not know it is a sacred matter, and that such curiosity is a crime
and an atrocious insult to a minister of state, and that no one is per-
mitted to open the letters which a commanding officer writes to me?
Answer — This is quite certain, and no one ought to be ignorant of it;
but it is absolutely beyond doubt that my letters have been opened and
that copies of them have been made. In do not even know whether the
originals have been sent to you, and it is really the purport of my let-
ters and of this little catechism which has stirred up against me all the
difficulties which I now have on my hands, from which I hope you will
have the goodness to release me by punishing the hatred or rather the
fury of those who are plotting my ruin — founded upon this, that I have
maintained with so much vigor the preserving of Fort Pontchartrain,
the success of which they have been unable to interrupt.
His allusion to "this little catechism" can hardly be mistaken, for
it is nothing less than a confession that it is a conversation of the
writer's fancy. The catechism, which is an entirety, is divided into
three parts, and the scenes are laid at intervals of a year or more apart.
No one carefully reading the whole matter would be led to suppose that
this conversation actually took place. In explanation of the charges
upon which he was tried in Quebec, in 1705, Cadillac produces an elab-
orate conversation, of which the following questions and answers are a
part:
Question — Give me an exact account and tell me without disguising
anything, whether you are guilty of all you are accused of, and as to
the complaints which the directors of the company have made against
you, and whether it is true that you have transacted trade and been
guilty of malversations at Detroit. If you are innocent justify your-
self and prove your integrity and your innocence, and be assured that
when once I know it you shall have my pretection.
Answer — It is only the force of the truth which I maintain, which
gives me the strength to appear before you with so much persever-
ance and firmness. This, then, is the origin of my dispute. I con-
victed M. de Tonty and two clerks of the company of having traded at
Detroit, although they were bound by a valid contract not to do so.
Question — Has this trading been proved?
Answer — It is indisputable, they have been caught in the act without
the possibility of gainsaying it.
73
Question— No doubt you seized the skins which these clerks wished
to smuggle?
Answer That was so done, but what seems to me to be the most hein-
ous offense is that the skins are taken from the company's own ware-
house, or at least it appears that they came from merchandise belong-
ing to the company which they have sold to the savages converting the
payment [in peltryj to their own use.
Question— Did you question these clerks, and did they agree that
these nineteen packages belonged to them, and were the proceeds of
their trading?
Answer— That is so; they did not deny the fact, and both signed
their deposition and their own condemnation.
Question — Is that all you seized?
Answer — There also are four other packages of beaver or other skins
which I seized even in the warehouse of the company, marked with the
name of Arnaud.
Question— How did you discover the theft of these four packages?
Answer — This was discovered through two beaver skins marked with
the mark of the company's warehouse, and with the number 239, which
served as a wrapper for forty roebuck skins. The two beaver skins were
not yet spoilt, though they had been thrown into a cellar full of water
under an empty house. This made me conclude that the warehouse
had been plundered. I paid it a visit and that was the cause of my
finding these four packages which Arnaud had concealed there.
Question — Are you not aware that these clerks have been guilty of
great malversations, though, however, those are quite enough to hang
them?
Answer — Pardon me, I know they have smuggled or stolen about
118 packages, worth, according to my reckoning, 1,400 crowns. It is
true that I am suffering unheard of persecution for having done my
duty. If you do not have compassion on me I do not see how to extri-
cate myself from it.
Question — What are you accused of? Who are those that complain?
Answer — I have done no wrong in this matter; it is the directors who
make complaint against me; it is their clerks who are my accusers.
Question — Did they accuse you before you denounced them to the
governor
Answer — Not at all ; it was ten months after I had forwarded the dep-
dtions signed by themselves. This is their first accusation, that I
74
compelled them to sell goods to the Indians at a low price and at a loss;
that it was an act of violence. The late Governor M. de Callieres gave
orders that goods were to be sold to the savages of Fort Frontenac at
twenty five per cent. , and to those of Detroit at fifty per cent, profit.
The sole means of retaining them in our interest was to give them
goods at a reasonable price. In a letter from M. de Vaudreuil of
April 14, 1704, he writes me in these terms: "Although I tell
you, Monsieur, to allow M. Desnoyer to carry out the orders which
he has from the board of directors, it is supposing always that the
interests of the king's service are not concerned. I tell you also that in
some cases it will not be amiss to trade on the old tariff. Try, how-
ever, to be careful of the company's interests." You should, indeed,
rather blame the governor and intendant for permitting the directors
to cavil at me, when I had forgotten their orders and acted in the in-
terest of the company in such a difficult juncture, for the English had
sent a necklace to Fort Pontchartrain and a list of prices of their goods,
which they promised to sell two-thirds cheaper than the company.
Question — Let us pass now to other matters, and tell me whether
they complain of violence on your part.
Answer — Yes, they impute to me as a capital offense having used
abusive language to their clerks, under the pretext, they say, that
they did not pay me the respect which I claimed to be due to me.
The third count of their complaint is that when they sent Desnoyer to
replace the principal clerk, Arnaud, they say, that on his arrival I de-
tained him more than two hours in my room under the pretense of
reading and inveighing against the letters that had been written tome,
in order that Radisson, another clerk, might have time to remove cer-
tain papers which he and I wished to conceal ; and this is given as the
reason why the board of directors have not been able to obtain the in-
formation they need to convict me. Desnoyer brought me many let-
ters, and I invited him to take breakfast in my house while I read
them, which he did. It occupied half an hour, after which I dismissed
this new clerk to go and carry out his orders. I cautioned him to do
his work with as little commotion as possible, as the Indians were not
accustomed to see seals put on chests, cupboards or cash boxes, nor on
the doors of the warehouse, which things are contrary to the freedom
which is very precious to the tribes.
Question — It is not true then that Radisson removed any papers?
Answer — I had no knowledge of it. Radisson says it is a falsehood
and a fabrication of Desnoyer.
75
Question What gave rise to the charge that you had influenced the
Indians to oppose the removal of furs until the stock of merchandise had
been brought to the warehouse?
Answer — It is because Desnoyer, and the other clerks who came with
him, maliciously gave out that they came for the purpose of sending
down the skins only, and that they would not bring them goods for
exchange ; in order to compel them to abandon the post, no doubt ac-
cording to private instructions they had. This is what offended the
Indians. The first time I imprisoned Desnoyer he was confined in the
sergeant's room for three hours, because he opposed my orders when I
would have sent some of the company's employees to assist in punish-
ing some Indians who had murdered a soldier. I imprisoned him
again when I found that, contrary to the regulations of the post, he
had loaded a boat with furs, manned it with eight men, and was set-
ting out for Montreal without having given notice.
Count Pontchartrain, when he received the proceedings of the trial,
read between the lines of the complaints and the evidence submitted,
and plainly saw that it was a conspiracy to cast down his protege. He
practically took the case out of Governor Vaudreuil's hands and or-
dered that the defendant be exonerated. He wrote the governor that
he entirely approved of Cadillac's course at Detroit, and that he upheld
him in maintaining the supremacy of his majesty's interests over and
above the interests of the Company of the Colony. Governor Vaudreuil
was reprimanded for being a party to the conspiracy, which had evidently
been fomented against Cadillac, and was told that a repetition of such
conduct would cause his dismissal from office. Intendant Beauharnois
was also warned that intrigues detrimental to the interests of the
colonies would not be tolerated. Cadillac was ordered reinstated at
Detroit in full control, both civil and military. The Company of the
Colony was deprived of its legislative and administrative functions, and
the trading privileges of the post were vested in Cadillac according to
the original understanding. The commandant was thus completely
vindicated and restored to full power.
76
JAMES V. CAMPBELL.
CHAPTER X.
Father Del Halle, the First Pastor of St. Anne's Church, Murdered by the In-
dians— Cadillac is Sent from Montreal to Punish the Murderer — His Enemies Seek
to Compromise Him with the Indians and with his Superiors — 1706-1708.
As before stated, Cadillac left the post under the care of Captain
Tonty, but Lieut. Louis Bourgmont was sent from Quebec to act as
commandant shortly afterward, arriving in Detroit on January 29,
1705. The reason for this does not appear. Bourgmont was a big,
blustering fellow of great strength and violent temper. He had the
effrontery to bring his mistress, a notorious woman known as La
Chenette, to Detroit, and the pair created no little scandal at the post.
Friendly Indians were allowed many liberties about the post after they
had deposited their arms with the guards at the gate, and they never
tired of peering into the houses to admire the finery of the white man's
home. One June day a young Ottawa named Tichinet was peering
about Bourgmont's house, when the commandant's dog bit him in the
leg. He gave the brute a lusty kick which sent it howling to its mas-
ter. Bourgmont rushed out of the house and fell upon the Indian in a
fury of passion. The Ottawa was left senseless on the ground, and
he soon died of his injuries. This naturally made a stir in the Ottawa
village, for Bourgmont's brutal ways had already given offense. He
had shown special favors to the Miamis, and as a party of these peo-
ple were on their way to the fort, the Ottawas attacked them and killed
five. As they pursued the survivors to the gate of the fort, Bourgmont
ordered his soldiers to fire upon them, and several fell. As they passed
the garden of Father Del Halle, which was just east of the fort, about
where Woodward and Jefferson avenues now intersect, they saw the
priest attending to his flowers. Several young braves, hot headed and
bloodthirsty, rushed in, seized him, and he was stabbed three times.
They resolved to take him to their village, but a chief met them on the
way and ordered them to release their captive, who had always been
friendly to the Indians, and had shown them much kindness. Father
Del Halle, weak from the loss of blood, staggered slowly toward the
77
fort. As he arrived at the gate a big Ottawa chief named Le Pesant,
who was waiting under cover for a shot at one of the soldiers, sent a
bullet through the priest, and several other shots stretched him dead at
the gate of the fort. A soldier named La Riviere, who had been work-
ing outside the post, was killed later in the day. Firing continued
from five o'clock in the evening until midnight and for forty days
after, and then the Ottawas retired to Mackinac.
Father Nicholas Constantine Del Halle was the first priest of St.
Anne's. He accompanied Cadillac and his party and was present at
the founding of Fort Pontchartrain. Father Francois Valliant, a Jesuit
who had also accompanied the party of the founding had gone to Fort
Frontenac, and this left the Franciscan friar Del Halle as chaplain of
the post and pastor of St. Anne's. The first record of the church was
written by Father Del Halle January 27, 1704, but there may have
been other records which were destroyed when the church was burned
in 1703. The priest was killed on June 6, 1706, and was interred in
the post cemetery, which was situated a short distance north of the gar-
den where he was seized. It was quite natural that this affair should
create great excitement both among the whites and among the Indians.
Justice demanded the punishment of the murderer, and to avoid retri-
bution a number of the Ottawas, including Le Pesant, returned to
Mackinaw. The Miamis looked to the soldiers to avenge them for the
killing of their people, and the Ottawas were angry with the whites for
firing upon them. Reports of the trouble came to Quebec and Gover-
nor Vaudreuil ordered the Ottawas to send a delegation to him, with
the person of Le Pesant, the slayer of the priest, in custody. Twelve
chiefs headed by Jean Le Blanc, whose tribal name was Ontonagon,
arrived before the governor June 16, 1707, and Vaudreuil demanded
the head of Le Pesant, otherwise known as the Great Bear, on account
of his huge bulk and surly disposition. " Le Pesant is a chief of great
influence among our people," answered Le Blanc, who was the sole
spokesman. " He is seventy years of age and has been a great war-
rior, as he is now mighty in council. He has many descendants among
many tribes. Like the great oak his roots and branches extend every-
where, and if we give him up, his death would cause a general war.
Here are two Pawnee slaves we have brought in place of the good
gray robe, whose life we cannot restore. "
Vaudreuil insisted that the gift of the two slaves could not atone for
the death of a holy man of the church, and insisted that Le Pesant be
brought to ju.stice.
78
"My father demands justice for the death of the gray robe, but his
justice would cost dear," answered Le Blanc. " If Le Pesant is given
up, the Ottawas, Potawatomies, Chippewas and several other tribes
will war against the Miamis and the Frenchmen. Many scalps would
be taken and the wigwams would be filled with mourning. I am a
chief as well as Le Pesant, and I am not afraid to die. If my father
must slay, that his wrath may be appeased, here is my tomahawk. It
is better that my wigwams should be desolate than that many of my
people should be destroyed in war. Strike! my father, and let my life
atone for that of the priest. "
Vaudreuil was nonplused at this turn of affairs, so he told the chiefs
to depart for Detroit by way of Lake Erie, and there make such atone-
ment as Cadillac would demand. Cadillac had been instructed by let-
ter that the murderer must be brought to justice, and Vaudreuil was
probably glad to get rid of the responsibility of so grave a complication,
as if trouble followed it would recoil upon the head of the commandant
whom he hated.
Meanwhile Cadillac had returned to Detroit and assumed the reins
of power. He had heard of the tragedy on the way, two days after he
left Montreal. He brought with him several artisans and farmers who
settled at the post. On his return the Company of the Colony sold out
its interest at the post to him, and then renewed its activity toward
making Mackinaw the favored post of the French. Unharmed and
undismayed by all the shafts of hate, envy and malice that had been
leveled against him, Caidllac grew livelier and stronger after every at-
tack, and his vivacity and combativeness seemed inexhaustible. He
was a peculiar man and his character is hard to describe, his virtues
and faults revealing themselves at every step in his career. He had
the physical and moral courage of a great leader ; he was too proud to
be dishonest, although he was intensely self-seeking; and he was far-
seeing and perspicacious in colonization matters beyond any of his con-
temporaries in New France, but his mentality was more active than
profound, and his convictions were changeable. Ever bubbling over
with ideas, like champagne in a full goblet, he had plans for a copper
mine on Lake Huron; for silk culture among the mulberry trees near
Lake Erie; for grants of land to his soldiers and himself; to be en-
nobled as a marquis and be the chief ruler of the Northwest; for a
uniformed Indian militia; for a seminary to teach the French language
to the savages around the post ; and for marrying the Indian maidens
79
to his soldiers. The last named plan was, however, a failure. Con-
cerning the Indian character he had committed himself as follows:
"The savage himself asks why they do not leave him his beggary, his
liberty and his idleness ; he was born in it and he wished to die in it.
It is a life to which he has been accustomed since Adam. Do they wish
to build palaces and ornament them with beautiful furniture? He
would not exchange his wigwam and the mat on which he camps like
a monkey, for the Louvre. An attempt to overthrow the present state
of affairs in this country would only result in the ruin of commerce and
the destruction of the colony." But in 1703, in the environment of
Detroit, flushed with well earned success as a colonizer and in more
intimate relations with the Indians than ever before, he enthusiastically
exclaims: "It seems that God had raised me as another Moses to go
and deliver this people from captivity, or rather as Caleb, to bring
them back to the land of their fathers. . . Meanwhile Montreal
[the Jesuits] plays the part of Pharoah ; he cannot see this emigration
without trembling."
In his copious letters to Count Pontchartrain, his information on the
condition of the colony was always interlarded with denunciation of his
enemies. A conspiracy to ruin him was ever in progress among the
company while it was in existence, its officials, the Jesuits, the coureurs
lie bois and his own subordinate officers. There was a good deal of
truth in these statements, of course, but he was too aggressive and too
bitter in his sarcasms, and much given to egotistic boasting, and these
qualities were not calculated to gain many friends for their possessor.
At one time it was proposed, probably by Cadillac himself, that the
settlement should be removed to Grosse Isle, below Detroit, which fronts
on the water on each side for a distance of eight miles, but Cadillac
saw that it would be inconvenient for its inhabitants to bring food,
firewood and all necessary supplies from the mainland. For this reason,
and not because Grosse Isle was too small for the future growth of his
capital, he rejected the proposition to go there.
Although Cadillac purchased the goods of the company left at the
post, he did not succeed to all their privileges, which included the sole
right to trade and was very profitable. Close limits were placed on
Cadillac's trading privileges so that his profits would be quite moderate.
One of his most valuable perquisites was that he might have three
hundred pounds of freight brought in each canoe arriving at the settle-
ment, free of charge.
80
Shortly before Cadillac's return Lieutenant Bourgmont, whose brutal
conduct led to such grave troubles, left the post, accompanied by La
Chenette, and later correspondence says that they built a wigwam in
the wilderness and lived together as savages during the rest of their
days. This was not an uncommon circumstance for Frenchmen with
vagrant tastes, who had settled in New France, but it was very infre-
quent with white women who had once known civilized ways.
Cadiirac's most difficult duty was to restore peace and order among
the turbulent Indians in his midst and within his jurisdiction. When
he received the letter from Vaudreuil ordering justice done in regard
to the murdered priest, but not specifying the manner in which it
should be accomplished, he recognized the hand of his enemy. He
was an abler man than Vaudreuil, and he must have smiled and simply
said that he would surmount the difficulty without compromising him-
self with either the Indians or the government. So he commenced by
calling a council with the twelve Ottawa chiefs, and telling them that
he had no discretion in the matter; that Governor Vaudreuil had com-
manded that Le Pesant's head must atone for the murder of the
priest and that of the soldier La Riviere. They must go to Mackinaw,
he said, take Le Pesant into custody at all hazards, and bring him to
to Detroit. At the same time he informed the Indians secretly,
through an agent, that Le Pesant would come to no harm, but he must
make a show of obedience and trust his life in the hands of the Detroit
commandant. While this information was secretly given he also ad-
vised Meyaville, Sakima and Kataoulibois, three chiefs of other tribes, to
kill Le Pesant if he refused to come. Le Pesant was made to understand
the case and he came to Detroit by canoe, in charge of the three chiefs
already named, and accompanied by ten relatives to see that no harm
came to him on the journey. Le Pesant was delivered up and locked
in a warehouse over night to be arraigned next morning. Cadillac saw
that his execution would be followed by serious consequences, and is
charged with conniving at his escape. At any rate Le Pesant, who
was very fat and over seventy years, waddled out of his prison and
scrambled over the palisades about four o'clock next morning, and
none of the soldiers saw his escape.
Immediately the Miamis were furious at the commandant, and to
appease them the chiefs were ordered to return Le Pesant. They com-
plied and Le Pesant was given up. In a letter of complaint from Gov-
ernor Vaudreuil to Count Pontchartrain, the delivery is described.
81
Ontanagon stepped forward with his hand on the shoulder of the
murderer, saying: "Here is Le Pesant, who came into our camp.
You have the power to put him to death. He is your slave. You can
make him eat under your table like the dog that picks up the bones."
Cadillac regarded the prisoner sternly and thus addressed him : " There
you are, Le Pesant, before your father and your master. Is this that
great chief that was so well related and so highly esteemed? Was it
you that ate white bread every day at my table and drank of my brandy
and my wine? It was you that had an incurable disease of which I had
you cured by my physicians. Was it not you that I helped in your
need and took care of your family? And because of all these benefits
you have killed my people! You, who hide yourself and droop your
eyes, was it not you who went every day to the gray robe, who used to
caress you, and made you eat with him and taught you? Yet it was
you who killed him. There are reproaches, Pesant, which slay you.
There is no longer life in your heart; your eyes are half dead; you
close them; they dare not look at the sun. Go, my slave."
Le Pesant had been overcome with terror, but the last sentence gave
him courage. The other Indians, many of whom were from Mackinaw,
were pleased at the way affairs were going, and Cadillac was resolved
to win them to Detroit. One of the Ottawa chiefs addressed him,
saying :
"Our father is kind to his children who have angered him. We
want to come back to his protection. Give us back our fields which we
have deserted and we will come to live in peace. The corn at Mack-
inaw grows but a finger long, while here it is a cubit long. M. de St.
Pierre told us we should be slaves if we came to Detroit. He took us
apart to tell us. That made us think he was a liar. He wanted us to
go to Quebec and ask Onontio [Governor Vaudreuil] to make him com-
mandant at Mackinaw. The black robes [the Jesuits] dissuade us
from coming to Detroit."
Cadillac arose and presented a beautiful belt of wampum, saying:
"Your submission has gained m.y heart. Your obedience has made
the axe fall from my hand. It has saved your lives and the lives of
your families. And you, Le Pesant, why have you fled from me in
fear? You deserve to die, but I give you your life, because of your
submission and obedience. You are as one dead, because you have
been given up to justice, but I stay my hand and let you go to your
family."
82
This took place on September 24, 1707. There was great rejoicing-
among the Ottawas, who immediately settled upon the lands they had
deserted in Detroit when they fled to Mackinaw after the trouble in
June of the previous year. Le Pesant was one of the settlers, and as
he had been the leader of the party which killed the five Miamis, his
presence was hateful to the friends of the dead. The Miamis were not
to be appeased by Cadillac's blandishments and presents, but waited
for revenge.
Four weeks later an army of Iroquois came back from a war with
the Tetes Plattes (Flathead) Indians of the far west, and one band of
twenty four braves stopped at Detroit. They were entertained by the
Miamis, and the two tribes plotted for the destruction of the fort and
the murder of Cadillac. They waited for the rest of the Iroquois to
arrive from the west, and while they were waiting the plot was re-
vealed. When the garrison was put on its guard the attempt was
abandoned, but the Miamis killed three Frenchmen who were at some
distance from the fort and destroyed several cattle. Cadillac demand-
ed the surrender of the murderers and payment for the cattle. Fifteen
bundles of furs were given in compensation for the loss of the cattle,
but the surrender of the murderers was deferred for twenty days.
They were not surrendered on time, and the commandant started on
an expedition against the Miami fort, near the site of Toledo. His
expedition is treated very scornfully in one of Governor Vaudreuil's
letters of complaint to Count Pontchartrain. He says: "Had M. de
la Mothe been less obstinate and had he obeyed my instructions, all
this trouble would have been averted. He assumes the airs of a gov-
ernor and gives himself equal authority with me when he is dealing
with the savages. ■ 'I and Onontio will protect you,' he tells them.
He led his troops against the Miamis after he had given them unneces-
sary irritation, thinking no doubt they would not be found at their fort.
He found sixty of them in a fort, which was a mere square of logs
without flanking bastions, and when his men opened fire M. de la
Mothe concealed himself behind a tree at least eighteen feet in circum-
ference and stirred not from that post. He ought to have carried the
place at the sword's point. The fort finally surrendered and the Mi-
amis gave three hostages to pledge the surrender of the murderers.
They gave M. de la Mothe furs worth 1,000 crowns for the cattle they
had killed, and he has kept them for himself. Affairs are going badly
at Detroit owing to the selfish management of M. de la Mothe. His
83
hostility to the Jesuit fathers is most unseemly, as he constantly mis-
represents them and places them in a bad light before the Indians and
the French, and what can they accomplish for religion in such a case ?
Father Davenau, who has been with the Indians for nineteen years, and
knows how to control them, he ordered away from his post among the
Miamis, and replaced the Jesuit with a Recollect father who does not
understand Indians."
It is plain to see that Governor Vaudreuil was a supporter of the Jes-
uits and the traders, and consequently the enemy of Cadillac. His
censure of Cadillac for taking refuge behind a tree was decidedly far
fetched, because that was the custom in Indian fighting, and those who
fought them in the open invariably paid dearly for their temerity. His
keeping of the furs for the destruction .of cattle he had brought from
Montreal was but natural. The cattle had been purchased with his
money, and his ownership is acknowledged in other correspondence.
There is no question that Cadillac did the Jesuits all the harm he
could, and willfully misrepresented them because they opposed his
plans of settlement. The original cause of his enmity is not known,
but it was probably something more than their opposing interests, as
before related, or his attachment to the order of the Franciscans.
In this connection it may be well to understand why there was hos-
tility between the Jesuits and the Franciscans. The latter order was
divided into many sects. The original members of the order of St.
Francis de Assisi took the vows of chastity and poverty, and their rules
were so rigorous that they were modified in some localities in order to
attract members to the order. The Recollects were adherents of the
more rigorous discipline, and lived in France, England and Holland.
The Franciscans of Spain and Italy did not put awa}* all comforts. They
were the first order of priesthood to arrive in America, as several ac-
companied Columbus on his first voyage, and they soon had missions
planted in the West Indies and South America. One of them, Mark
of Nice, crossed Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and traveled along the
coast of California to the Golden Gate more than sixty years before
Champlain founded Quebec, and it was he who gave the name of his
patron saint, St. Francisco, to the metropolis of the Pacific slope. The
Franciscans had possession of all the south, or the Spanish colonies.
When Champlain returned to Quebec in 1614, after a visit to France,
he brought four Recollects, who were the first priests in Canada. In
1621 Duke Ventador sent three Jesuits and two lay brothers to Tadou-
84
sac near Quebec. This was the first entrance of the Jesuits into Can-
ada, but they became active explorers of the West and claimed the
territory of New France as their exclusive field. This the Recollects
would not concede, and hence the hostility.
CHAPTER XI.
Early Official Reports on Detroit — Cadillac's Enemies Plot to Have the Post
Abandoned — They Willfully Misrepresent Affairs to the Government — 1701-1710.
Cadillac was masterful and combative, but sometimes he could bend
before the storm, and the triumph of the Jesuits at Mackinac in restrict-
ing the sale of liquor at that place taught him a lesson.
Aigremont's report after visiting Detroit in 1703, says that "he
[Cadillac] compels each one, French or Indian, to go to the public
storehouse for brandy where they can buy only one-twenty-fourth of a
quart at a time. [This was at the rate of twenty-five livres per quart,
so that one eighth of a pint or two ounces cost about fifteen cents per
drink.] The savages cannot become intoxicated on this quantity, but
as they have to await their turns, some are obliged to return home
without their beverage, and seem ready to kill themselves in their dis-
appointment." Their sad bereavement seemed to touch the heart of
the inspector, but it was more hatred of Cadillac than pity for the dis-
appointed Indians that dictated his report.
A picture of the Detroit settlement is occasionally presented in the
annual reports of the governor and intendant to Count Pontchartrain,
but these reports usually contain more or less matter detrimental to
Cadillac, and are colored so as to discourage a continuation of the post.
Their chief interest is to show how persistent and united was the effort
to ruin Cadillac and abandon Detroit to the Indians. One of these offi-
cial reports was dated April 11, 1707, soon after Cadillac resumed con-
trol of the post. It bears the signature of Riverin, and its contents are
of such a nature that it could not have passed the eye of Vaudreuil and
the other officials at Quebec. It speaks of M. de la Forest as second
in command to Cadillac, but says that the former is growing old and
breaking down. La Forest, it says, "has been thirty-two years in the
wilderness, and was with La Salle and the elder Tonty on their early
explorations. The census at Detroit shows 270 whites, many pigs and
considerable poultry; sheep are about to be introduced. Detroit has
opened up trade with the Mississippi valley and Frenchmen go to and
fro bringing back piastres for their goods [indicating that they are sell-
ing supplies to the Spaniards]. Sieur de Tonty is at Frontenac. Sieur
Jonquaire, Indian agent, is among the Sonnontouans [Senecas], and the
younger Reynard is agent at Mackinaw. All these agents are stated to
be a great hindrance at Detroit. They are taking the cream of the public
and private trade under false pretenses. To prevent settlers from
going to Detroit, these agents say that the post will soon be abandoned.
The best way to undeceive the people would be to raise the post to a
permanent governorship, but still without any pay."
On November 14, 1708, Procureur-General de la Touche, Governor
Vaudreuil and Intendant Randot made a combined report which may
be briefly summarized as follows: Beaver skins were low and goods to
be given in exchange were very dear. At Orange, subsequently
Albany, New York, the English were paying far better prices for furs
and giving goods much cheaper in trade. Commerce in the French
colonies was paralyzed by the conditions. The English were giving
better bargains and plenty of brandy, and Indians, even from Lake
Superior, were resorting to Orange. French traders had given com-
mercial paper for goods and much of it had become worthless. Mr.
Aubert was about the only trader whose bills of exchange were redeem-
able, and plenty of wild cat money was in circulation. In order
to avoid an open rupture with the Indians, permission had to be
granted for them to go to Orange. Permission was asked to renew the
bills of M. Champigny, as the originals were worn out with handling.
The officials agreed not to issue beyond the funds of the king's money
on hand, and advised an issue of bills of thirty two livres. They
would in no way pledge his majesty, but would secure payment from a
fund in the hands of the treasurer-general of the navy. Cadillac's re-
port that there were 120 houses at Detroit was denounced as a lie;
there were but sixty-three houses, and instead of 1,200 Indian huts
there were but 150. There were only sixty-three whites in the settle-
ment, of whom twenty-nine were married soldiers who could not
be claimed as residents, because they were there on compulsion and
could not get away. The other residents of Detroit were voyageurs of
the Company of the Colony whose true homes were in Montreal, and
86
who only got to Detroit for a short season each year. Cadillac has 157
arpents of land for himself and the rest of the settlers have but forty-
six. Cadillac's account of the live stock is also denounced as a lie.
According to the report, there are but three cows, six bulls, a calf and
one horse. The commandant sells milk at twenty sols the pot (about
two quarts), and more cows would lower the price. He lets his horse
at ten livres a day, and would not have another horse for fear of
lowering his revenue. The officials are surprised to learn that Cadillac
wants a jurisdiction of high, low and middle justice set up at Detroit,
as the post is declining and he is not sure of twenty settlers. Then the
report branches off to relate about a foray of French and Indians up
Lake Champlain to an English settlement called Heureil, which place
was burned with its fort and one hundred English killed. In this ex-
pedition the French came upon a party of sixty English while on their
return to Montreal, and the latter were destroyed. The French lost five
whites and three Indians killed and eighteen wounded. Again the re-
port, which is of interminable length, returns to the subject of Detroit,
Officers at Detroit have sent out favorable reports in the past, but now
they have changed their minds ; they are in desperate straits to live.
Sieur de la Forest cannot live there on his pay. When the Company of
the Colony had the post it used to provide food for the junior officers,
and it gave Sieur de Tonty 1,300 livres a year. Since M. de La Mothe
has the rights of the company, he should be compelled to do likewise ;
he should be compelled at least to share his profits with Tonty.
In spite of the opposition of Vaudreuil, D'Aigremont and others, to
the post at Detroit, Cadillac had at least one strong friend at court be-
sides the Count Pontchartrain. In the archives of France is found a
recommendation from M. Daureuil, procureur-general of the king, to
the superior council at Quebec, written April 15, 1707. This recom-
mendation is addressed to Count Pontchartrain and the substance of it
is as follows: That all boats sent from the lower stations up to Mack-
inaw, even those of the Jesuit fathers, be obliged to go by the lakes and
past Detroit, where they shall be inspected, and shall show,passports
with a list of their cargoes. These passages are to be recorded by the
commandant at Detroit, and reports shall be made by him to the
crown. Prohibited goods, such as brandy, going up, or fresh beaver
skins going down, during the five years which will be required to com-
plete the trading contract with Sieur Aubert & Co. , and any others
that the court may authorize, are to be seized, confiscated for the bene-
87
fit of the church at Detroit, and a fine of five hundred livres assessed
against the offenders. Parties sending boats to Mackinaw to trade
with the Ottawas or other tribes of the great river (the Mississippi)
without authority, shall be punished by a fine of 1,500 livres for each
offense; the money to go to the hospitals at Quebec, Three Rivers and
Montreal. This inspection is recommended because, since the Jesuit
fathers have been deprived of royal favor, they have either contributed
to or consented to illegal loading of canoes to the injury of the king
and his colonies.
Sieur d'Aigremont's second report of his findings at Detroit on No-
vember 14, 1708, was colored to give the post at Detroit the worst pos-
sible reputation with the government, and the commandant was given
a worse character than the post. In brief, the report stated that Cad-
illac was intensely hated by every person about the post, both Indian
and white, with the exception of three or four Frenchmen, who acted
as his confederates in schemes for personal gain. He was charged with
all manner of extortions practiced against the settlers and with dis-
honesty. Blacksmith Parent, according to report, was compelled to
pay a license fee of six hundred livres for the privilege of plying his
trade. In addition to this he was compelled to donate two barrels of
beer to the commandant, and to shoe the commandant's horse free of
charge. According to the report there was but a handful. of whites in
the settlement at this time and they tilled but forty- six arpents of land,
so there could be but little demand for blacksmithing, as there was but
one horse to shoe in the settlement, and about the only tools in use
were a few hoes and mattocks. Parent evidently had some connection
with the brewery of the post, or he would not have been required to
furnish the commandant's table with beer. He was subsequently per-
secuted by Tonty because he was faithful to Cadillac. Armorer Pinet,
according to D'Aigremont, was obliged to pay three hundred livres a
year for his license, and in addition he was required to repair, free of
charge, twelve guns each month for the post. D'Aigremont estimates
these services worth ten livres per gun, or 1,440 livres a year, making
his total license fee 1,740 livres The fort, he said, was a miserable
affair ; several times during his stay he had narrowly escaped serious
injury from the falling of the rotten palisades, which were hardly able
to stand alone, and serious breaches existed where large sections of them
had crumbled away. The soil about Detroit, D'Aigremont said, was
nothing but barren sand along the river front, and farther back the
88
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ZACHARIAH CHANDLER.
country was nothing- but a succession of morasses. The set'tlers by
great diligence were able to raise a little wheat during favorable sea-
sons; also some Indian corn; but the soil would soon be exhausted.
Numberless millions of starlings came in from the swamps to the grain
fields, and it was only by the utmost diligence that the settlers could
keep them away. Locusts and caterpillars usually destroyed the crops
before they could come to maturity, and it would be cruel of the gov-
ernment to keep settlers in such a place. The only products of the
place worth consideration were the beaver skins, and they were so in-
ferior to the skins of the north as to be almost worthless. The post
ought, however, to be a source of much peltry, but the small shipments
from Detroit led D'Aigremont to believe that Cadillac was trading
secretly with the English.
A more prejudiced report could hardly have been concocted and
there was just enough truth in each item of complaint to give the re-
port plausibility. Not a single product of Detroit was spared. D'Aigre-
mont reported that there were plenty of grapes, apples and plums at
the post, but that they tasted detestably. He tasted some cider made
there, and it was as bitter as gall. The fruits named must have been
wild scuppernong grapes, wild crab apples and wild plums. The report
closes with a laudation of Mackinaw, which he says lacked all the dis-
advantages found at Detroit. It was healthful, had a productive soil,
and its geographical position made it the most important post in the
West. Great profit was sure to follow an encouragement of this post,
but if Detroit was kept up much longer the expense would ruin Canada.
In 1708 there were cultivated 350 acres, of which Cadillac had 157
acres, and the French settlers forty-six acres; sixty-three of the
dwellers in the fort owned their lots, and twenty-nine owned farms
outside of the inclosure.
CHAPTER XII.
First Families of Detroit — The First Directory and Tax List as Compiled by C.
M. Burton— Inventory of the Property Owned by Cadillac— 1701-1710.
EARLIEST DIRECTORY.
C. M. Burton, in speaking of the first two houses erected in Detroit,
says that the modern idea of a log house consisting of horizontal tim-
ber, mortised at the ends, was totally unknown to the early settlers.
"I think that their houses, even those of the better classes, consisted
of stakes driven into or buried in the ground as closely as possible,
with the interstices filled with mortar or mud. These upright pickets
were cut off even at the top and a pitch-roof of split rails put on. Saw-
ing lumber by hand was too difficult a job for much lumber of that
kind to be used, and that kind was for interior work, doors, shutters,
etc. Glass was very expensive, and there are no records of any glass
windows, except that in the church there was a window with a shutter
and sash panes between of twenty squares each." The squares may re-
fer to the small diamonds of glass which were common in church win-
dows until even a few years ago.
The following is a description of Cadillac's buildings in Detroit,
which was drawn up after he left Detroit in 1711, to become the gov-
ernor of Louisiana; it is somewhat abbreviated from the original:
1 — A warehouse 37| by 22 feet and eight feet high, boarded with
thick planks of oak, with shutters and doors and a staircase, a press for
pressing furs, a counter and three shelves for books.
2 — A house of stakes in earth, '631 by 19 feet and eight feet high,
with doors and shutters.
3 — A small cellar adjoining said house, boarded below with split
stakes, also a porch and door.
4 — A house 18 by 12| feet and eight feet high, with a cabinet, a
postern outside and a cellar.
5 — A cattle shed 16 by 12, of stakes in earth.
6 — A barn 50 by 27 feet and eleven feet high, surrounded by stakes
in earth joined together.
90
7 — A house 33 by 21 feet and nine feet high, surrounded by stakes
in earth.
8 — A dove cote raised on four wooden posts, six feet high and ten
feet square.
9 — An ice house, fifteen feet square and six feet above the ground
and fifteen feet below the ground with split beams.
10 — The church, 35 by 24^ feet and ten feet high with oak joists on a
good ridge, and below of beams with square joints, with doors, win-
dows and shutters, and sash frames between of twenty squares each,
also a heavy bell.
In these structures, except the cattle shed, barn, one house, the dove
cote and ice house, mention is made that the doors " closed with a key,"
which was perhaps a necessary precaution.
New France, like the mother country, in those days was under feudal
tenure. It was ruled over by a committee of three appointed by the
king and known as the sovereign council, consisting of the governor-
general, the bishop and the intendant. The lands nominally belonged
to the king and were held by seigneurs who paid rent in military ser-
vice. The authority of the seigneurs in their respective domains was
like that of a noble in France. He could try any offender for any
crime short of treason and murder. Every tenant owed him military
service, and each one had his grain ground at the seigneur's mill. If a
seigneur sold any portion of his grant he had to pay the crown one-
fifth of the purchase money. If a tenant sold his land or lease the
seigneur was paid one-twelfth of the consideration. The law required
these landholders to divide their property equally among their chil-
dren, and as a consequence came the long, ribbon farms on the St.
Lawrence, the Detroit, the St. Ann and other rivers where French
rule was established, each owner having a water front, for water was
the principal, and sometimes the only, means of communication and
transportation. The houses were generally on the bank, with the
roadway on the edge of the water. The houses were sometimes so
close that an alarm or important news could be conveyed by each
habitan calling to his neighbor, and would thus be conveyed to the re-
motest house in a short time.
Taxation commenced with the founding of Detroit, and, of course,
continues to the present day. Cadillac conveyed all the land, whether
in village lots or farms, and the metes and bounds of these parcels
can now be traced as if made to-day. The farmer cultivated his
91
ground in the daytime, and at night retired to his home in the fort;
and where he had to pay rent for the two places, he was charged less
in proportion than the village dweller. Lots within the fort were
granted to settlers at an annual rental of two sols, or cents, per foot
front, and when sold or exchanged, an alienation fine of one-twelfth
was imposed. Lands outside this fort were let at the rate of one sol
quit rent and forty sols rent for each arpent of frontage. One-quarter
of a bushel of wheat was also paid for each arpent, and, as the usual
grant was of four arpents frontage, the annual dues amounted to eight
livres and four sols and a bushel of wheat a year. Alienation fines
were charged in all manner of exchanges, even when the lands were
inherited.
The following is a list of the original colonists of Detroit who paid
yearly taxes for rent from 1707 to 1710, payable in March; and also
taxes, reduced to United States currency, for other rights, generally
for practicing their vocations as trader, carpenter, blacksmith, armorer,
farmer, shoemaker, etc. In addition each and every one paid ten
livres, or $2, for the latter privileges. They also paid sums for rent
according to the location and desirability of the lot. All these sums
were payable in furs or in such coined money as might have been cur-
rent, and ranged in amount from twenty cents to $2.40 in United
States money:
1 Pierre Chesne... $0,60
2 Andre Chouet, dit Cameraud .60
3 Pierre Taveran, dit la Grandeur .38
4 Joseph Despre - .40
5 Solomon Joseph Du Vestin 40
6 Pierre Leger, dit Parisian .40
7 Bonaventure Compien, dit L'Esperance --. .24
8 Jacob De Marsac, dit Des Rocher 62
9 M. D'Argenteuil .50
10 Jean Richard. .40
11 Jean Labatier, dit Champaign 40
12 Etienne Bouton .60
13 Pierre Hemard .50
14 Antoine Dupuis, dit Beauregard .60
15 Jacques Langlois 1.30
16 Guillaume Boult, dit Deliard .50
17 Michel Masse.. 1.68
18 Michel Campo 1.06
19 Louis Normand .50
20 F'rancois Tesse .40
92
21 Pierre Chantelon.... 56
23 Francois Bienvenue, dit De Lisle 60
33 Pierre Esteve 50
34 Blaise Surgere... .60
25 Pierre Porrier .. .50
36 Antoine Ferron .40
27 Pierre Tocet .50
38 Francois Fafard, dit De Lorme .90
39 Michel Disier .50
30 Jacob De Marsac .40
31 A man named Rancontre .50
32 A rrtan named Des Lauriers .50
33 A man named Xaintonge .50
84 Jacques Du Moulin .60
35 Guillaume Aquet, dit Laporte .50
36 Louis Gustineau ... .50
37 Joseph Parent.. ....._ .60
38 Martm Sirier .60
39 Quilenchive .50
40 M. Derance .30
41 Du Figuer .54
42 La Montague, dit Pierre Mouet .90
43 Pierre Mallet 1.60
44 Antoine Dufresne.. 1.00
45 Jean Baptiste Chornic .32
46 Jean Casse, dit St. Aubin .50
47 Paul Langlois .50
48 Jerome Marliard 40
49 Andre Bombardier .50
50 Pierre Duroy... -60
51 Pierre Roy .78
52 Francois Marque 26
53 Antoine Magnant 1.00
54 Francois Bonne.. 1.00
55 Touissaint Dardennes .30
56 Pierre Bassinet .20
57 Francois Brunet .40
58 Antoine Beauregard 3.40
59 Marie Le Page .73
60 Jacques Campo .40
61 Jean Serond .50
63 Pierre Robert 1.30
63 Larramee .50
64 Rene Le Moine .40
65 Jacques Le Moine .40
66 Paul Guillet 1.30
67 Joseph Rivard .30
93
68 Antoine Tuffe, dit Du Fresne.. .. .40
$ 40.62
68 tenants at $2 each .136.00
Total... $176.62
Money, of course, in those days, had three times the purchasing
power of ,the present time, but, all things considered, the tax roll of
Detroit in the first decade of the eighteenth century could not have
been called high or extortionate.
The settlers also took all their grain to the commandant's mill, and
paid a toll of one- eighth of the grain, and baked in the public ovens,
of which Cadillac had the profits. By the order of the governor-general
he was directed to charge only one-fourteenth for grinding grain, but
he disregarded the mandate, and did not give any reason for his dis-
obedience. His income, therefore, was about 500 crowns, or $550 per
year.
Each settler, including Cadillac himself, had to pay taxes for the
maintenance of the church and its priest. The church and all the vest-
ments and paraphernalia belonged to Cadillac. Even the traders who
only visited Detroit, and did not reside here, had to pay small sums for
the benefit of the church. On June 7, 1710, Cadillac, who had formerly
borne the expense of maintaining a priest, called the residents of De-
troit together and submitted plans for maintaining the church and priest
by public dues. The priest was to be paid five hundred livres annually,
of which the commandant was to pay two hundred livres, while the in-
habitants were to supply him with food. Each resident, in addition,
was to pay for the support of the church a tithe consisting of one-tenth
of his annual income.
Of Cadillac's profits as a fur dealer, only an estimate can be made,
which is partially founded on his own statements in 1703 as to the prof-
its of the Company of the Colony in Detroit. These, he said, amounted
to 20,000 livres, or $4,000. He acted as notary, and received as his fee
one twelfth of the consideration of every piece of real estate sold. Up
to 1709 the government defrayed the expense of the garrison, but in
that year he was told that he would have to pay his soldiers himself.
It was only for a year, however, and he was relieved in 1710, and ap-
pointed governor of Louisiana. It is fair to presume that he cleared
between $3,000 and $5,000 a year, and if he had kept the money rea- ,
lized he would have been in a good financial standing. But he rein-
94
vested nearly all his money in buildings, mills, public ovens, a vessel
of ten tons, etc., and when he left Detroit he could not obtain any
compensation for them.
In 1896 C. M. Burton, of Detroit, gave a list of the adult white res-
idents of Detroit from 1701 to 1710, compiled from old notarial and
official records, a work involving immense expense and an enormous
amount of labor. It was printed as a brochure entitled " Detroit under
Cadillac," and with other new information, formed a valuable addition
to the history of the city. It is herewith given entire:
Abatis, Jean (or Labbatu ; see Labatier).
Aguenet (or Aguet), called Laporte, Guillaume. (Possibly the name should be
Haguenet.)
Arnauld, Bertrand, merchant, came to Detroit July 18, 1702.
Badeillac, Louis, called Laplante, made an agreement to come to Detroit May 29,
1701, the first convoy.
Bannois, Jeanne. She was the first wife of Guillaume Bouche, and died in 1703.
The name is given by Tanguay as Beauvais.
Bariteau, Julien, called La Marche, came May 30, 1705.
Baron, Denys, voyageur, came June 21, 1706.
Barthe, Jean (called Belleville), soldier, came October 10, 1706.
Barthe (called Belleville), Marie Charlotte, daughter of Jean Barthe, above. Born
October 27, 1709.
Bassinet, Joseph, Sieur Tourblanche, came April 2, 1707.
Bassinet, Pierre, brother of above, came same date.
Baudreau, Gabriel. Gabriel Baudreau and his wife, Catherine Fortier, were voy-
ageurs passing through Detroit on their way to Mobile, November 24, 1708.
Baudreau, Marie Louise, daughter of Gabriel Baudreau, baptized November 24,
1708.
Baugret, Francois, called Dufort, came September 10, 1710.
Beauchamp, Jacques, came as a bargeman, May 30, 1705.
Beauchamp, Pierre, brother of above, came same time.
Beaugis (or Baugis), Michael, voyageur.
Beauregard, see Dupuis.
Belille (or Belisle), Henry, first surgeon of the fort.
Besnard, Rene, came June 21, 1706. Soldier of Carignan regiment.
Bienvenue, Alexis, son of Francois, below. He married Josette Bouron, January
17, 1740.
Bienvenue, called Delisle, Francois, came August 2, 1707. His first wife was
Genevieve Laferiere, and his second wife was Marianne Lemoine. He was buried
September 29, 1751, aged eighty-eight years. The transformation of French names
is well illustrated by this person. His descendants are nearly universall}^ known
here by the name of Delisle or De Lisle, and the surname of two centuries ago is not
uncommonly used to day as a Christian name, and we frequently find Bienvenue (or
Welcome), Delisles in our real estate records.
95
Bienvenue, Joseph, son of Francois Bienvenue, above. Baptized March 5, 1704,
and buried December 3, 1711.
Bienvenue, Marie, daughter of Francois Bienvenue, above. Baptized December 8,
1705. She married Jacques Roussel, April 7, 1725. She is named Marianne in the
marriage record.
Bienvenue, Marie Joseph, daughter of Francois Bienvenue, born August 25, 1709.
Bienvenue, Rafael. Buried April 34, 1706, aged two years. Unless this is the
same person as Joseph Bienvenue, above, it is scarcely possible that Rafael was a
son of Francois Bienvenue. This is the first recorded death in Detroit, though there
is other evidence that a child of Alphonse de Tonty died before the first church was
burned, in 1703, and that Madam Bouche died in 1703.
Bizaillon (or Bisaillon), Michel, son of Benoit Bisaillon and of Louise Blaye, of
Clairmont, in Auvergne. He married Marguerite Fafard (dit De Lorme), June 30,
1710.
Bluteau, Agathe (in some places this name is spelled Bulteau), wife of Francois
Judith Contant, dit Rancontre.
Bollard, Jeanne, wife of Pierre Leger, dit Parisien.
Bombardier (called la Bombarde), Andre, a soldier and farmer.
Bombardier (called la Bombarde), Bernard Phillipe, son of Andre Bombardier,
above, born October 12, 1709.
Bombardier, Jean, son of Andre Bombardier, above, born July 18, 1707.
Bone, Marie Anne. The name probably should be spelled Beaune. She was the
widow of Francois Lorry and daughter of Jean Bone and Mary Magdelaine Bouri-
gier. She married Martin Cirier June 12, 1710. She came to Detroit April 18, 1707,
under an agreement to serve Cadillac for three years at eighty livres per year.
Bonne, Francois.
Bonnet, Guillaume (surnamed Deliard), armorer. A native of the parish of Charles-
burg, near Quebec. He died January 13, 1709.
Bosne, Francois. Came April 13, 1709.
Bosseron, Francois. (Tanguay spells the name Beauceron.) Farmer. He was
the husband of Marie Le Page (which name see).
Botquin, Pierre (called St. Andre). A soldier, came October 19, 1706. An inven-
tory of goods that he carried to Detroit in 1710 mcludes 50 pounds of powder at 40 sols
per pound, 100 pounds of bullets at 10 sols per pound, and 32 pots (of two quarts each)
of brandy at 45 sols per pot.
Boucher, Guillaume. His first wife was named Jeanne Beauvais, and after her
death, in 1703, he married Angelique Tholme, widow of Pierre Robert, August 16,
1716.
Boucher, Pierre, Esquire, sieur de Boucherville.
Bourdon, Pierre, voyageur, came June 15, 1706. Married, in 1711, Marie Anne
Gouyon.
Bougery, Denis, came as bargeman. May 30, 1705.
Bougery, Jean Louis. Brother of Denis, came September 14, 1710.
Bourg, Jean (called Lapierre). Voyageur, came June 15, 1706.
Bourgoin (called St. Paul), Didier. Soldier of Montigny. He signs Bourguin.
Boutron (called Major), Estienne. Farmer. The name Estienne shows one of the
common transformations of the French words. This is now commonly written
Etienne (Stephen), and the second letter s has been dropped, as it has in Destroit,
Chesne, despot, and many other words.
Boutron (called Major), Marguerite. Daughter of Etienne Boutron, above, born
September 15, 1709.
Boutron (called Major) Marie Angelique, daughter of Etienne Boutron, baptized
July 5, 1707.
Boyer, Zacharie. Voyageur, came May 20, 1708.
Boyer, Jean. Came as bargeman May 30, 1705.
Brabant, Michel. Voyageur, came August 2, 1707.
Breunel, Anne (probably intended for Anne Bruneau, which see). Wife of Louis
Normand.
Brisset, Bernard. Came May 18, 1708.
Bruneau, Anne. Wife of Louis Normand, dit Labrierre.
Brunet, Francois, dit Bourbonnais. Came May 80, 1705.
Buet, Rene. Came as bargeman May 30, 1705.
Butard, ■, wife of . She died December 10, 1724, aged thirty to thirty-
two years.
Cabazier, Charles. Voyageur, came June 13, 1707.
Cadieu, Pierre. Came as bargeman May 30, 1705.
Cadillac. See De La Mothe.
Caillomeau, Louis. Came September 6, 1710. This name probably should be
Galannaux.
Camerand. See Chouet.
Campau, Jacques (the name is also spelled Campo, Campos, Campeau and Campot).
Blacksmith, came September 3, 1708. His wife was Cecile Catin. He was buried
May 14, 1751, aged seventy-eight j^ears.
Campau, Jean. Came as bargeman May 30, 1705.
Campau. Jeanne. Daughter of Michel Campau.
Campau, Louis, son of Jacques Campau. He married Marie Louise Robert, wid-
ow of Francois Pelletier, and daughter of Pierre Robert and Angelique Tholme,
January 7, 1724.
Campau, Marguerite, daughter of Michel Campau, baptized March 2, 1708.
Campau, Marie Angelique. Daughter of Jacques Campau, born December 6, 1708.
Campau, Michel. Farmer, came August 3, 1707. His wife was Jeanne Masse.
He 'died before 1740.
Campau, Paul Alexander. Son of Michel Campau, born September 14, 1709. He
married Charlotte Sioneau, daughter of Mathurin Sioneau and Marie Charlotte Du-
beau, February 15, 1740.
Cardinal, Jacques. Voyageur, came October 13, 1707. Died May 17, 1724, aged
eighty-four years. ■
Cardinal, Jacques. Son of the preceding, came October 13, 1707. His wife was
Jeanne Dugue, and third son Pierre, was baptized August 30, 1729. They already
had a daughter Jeanne, who acted as god-mother to the infant Pierre. Jeanne mar-
ried Laurent Parent.
Cardinal, Marie. Wife of Jacques Hubert, dit la Croix, with her husband and one
child, she set out from Montreal for Detroit, May 22, 1709.
Cardinal Pierre. Came September 6, 1708.
97
Caron, Vital. Came April 2, 1707.
Carriere, Antoine (he signs the church record Hantoine Carrier, in 1710). His
parents, Andre Carriere and Cecile Jannot, lived on St. Paul street, Montreal. He
first came to Detroit, April 11, 1707, as a voyageur.
Casse (called St. Aubin), Jean. This is a good illustration of the change of French
names. The family name of Casse has been so completely lost through years of use
of the nickname, that this man's descendants are universally known as St. Aubin,
and there are many of them in Detroit to-day. I have grouped them all under this
name. Jean Casse's wife was Marie Louise Gautier. He died February 27, 1759,
aged more than one hundred years.
Casse (called St. Aubin), Jean Baptiste. Died of small-pox February 25, 1733, aged
twenty-seven or twenty-eight years. A great manj' people died in the winter of
1733-34, of small-pox. Jean Baptiste St. Aubin married Magdeleine Pruneau, daugh-
ter of Jean Pruneau and Suzanne Bellariger, of Quebec, July 31, 1731.
Casse (called St. Aubin), Jacques, son of Jean Casse and Marie Louise Gautier.
He married Catherine Vien, daughter of Ignace Vien and Angelique Du Sable, De-
cember 27, 1745.
Casse (called St. Aubin), Marie Anne, daughter of Jean (or Jean Baptiste) Casse
and Marie Louise Gautier. Born October 5, 1710. She married Charles Chauvin
(blacksmith), October 27, 1726. There was another daughter, Agathe Cass, who
married Nicholas Campau, dit Niagara.
Casse (called St. Aubin), Pierre, son of Jean Casse. Baptized May 2, 1709.
Catin, Cecile, wife of Jacques Campau. She died before 1732. Her daughter,
Marianne Campau, married Joseph Bondy, July 28, 1732, and her son, Claude, mar-
ried Catherine Casse (dit St. Aubin), daughter of Jean Casse, January 22, 1742.
Catinet, Joseph, of Pointe aux Trembles, near Montreal, was in Detroit July 26,
1707.
Chabot, Joseph.
Channet (called Camirand), Andre, sergeant of the troops in this country. His
wife was Anne Pastorel.
Channet (called Camirand), Andre, son of above. Born May 13, 1708.
Channet (called Camirand), Pierre, son of Andre, senior. Born about April, 1710.
Chanteloup, Pierre, farmer. Acted as godfather to Jean Bombardier, July 18,
1707. His wife came to Detroit April 11, 1707.
Charbonneau, Joseph. Came April 25, 1707.
Charbonneau, Michel. Came April 17, 1707. Brother of above.
Charnic. See du Charnic.
Charlet, Francois. His wife was Marthe Forstier.
Charlet, Pierre, son of above. Born May 3, 1709.
Charon, Charles.
Charpentier, Jean. Came April 2, 1707.
Chauvillon, Charlotte, wife of Jean Barthe, dit Belleville.
Chauvin, Gilles, voyageur. Came June 7, 1706. He and Louis Normand were in
partnership.
Chauvin, Jean Baptiste, voyageur. Came June 14, 1706.
Chauvin, Louis, voyageur. Came June 14, 1706. Brother of above.
Cheauonvouzon, Louis Antoine, surnamed Quarante Sols, chief of the Huron na-
tion. He was a very prominent and influential Indian and frequent reference is
made to him, both by Cadillac and by the Jesuit fathers at Mackinac. He was bap-
tized April 37, 1707, having as a godfather Cadillac himself. He died the same day,
aged forty-eight years.
Chesne, Charles, son of Pierre Chesne and Louise Batty. He married Catherine
Sauvage, daughter of Jacques Sauvage and Marie Catherine RieuL January 18, 1722.
Chesne, Francois, voyageur. Came September 25, 1707.
Chesne, Marie, daughter of Pierre Chesne and Jeanne Bailli. She married (first)
Jacques Montboef, dit Godfrey, and after his death she married Jacques Boutin,
September 16, 1733. There is a record that Marie Chesne died February 13, 1738.
From Marie Chesne have descended all the Godfreys of French extraction in and
about Detroit.
Chesne, Pierre. Came June 13, 1707. His wife was Jeanne Bailli, she died in
1710, she is sometimes referred to as Louise Batty. The name has been slightly
changed in spelling, though not in sound, by his descendants. He was the Detroit
ancestor of the present Chene family.
Chesne, Pierre. Son of above Pierre Chesne. He had two wives ; first on May 25,
1728, he married Marie Magdelene Roy, a daughter of Pierre Roy; this marriage
took place at Fort St. Phillipe, village of the Miamis. She died of small-pox Octo-
20, 1782, and in 1736 he married his second wife, Louise Barrois, daughter of Fran-
cois Lothenane, dit Barrois, and Marianne Sauvage. Pierre Chesne was an inter-
preter and sometimes called La Butte. He was born about 1697.
Chevalier, Jean. Came May 30, 1705. There is a record that Angelique Chevalier,
daughter of the late Jean Baptiste ChevaHer and the late Francoise Alavoine of this
parish married Antoine Nicolas Lauzon, February 27, 1769.
Chevalier, Michel. Came October 10, 1710.
Chevalier, Paul. Came July 12, 1702. His wife was Agathe Campau. They
lived on St. Paul street, Montreal. Paul, Jean and Robert were brothers.
Chevalier, Pierre.
Chevaher, Robert. Came June 15, 1706.
Chornic, Jean Baptiste.
Chouet (called Camerand) Andre.
Chouet, Louis, called Lagiroflee. Soldier in company of Cabana, captain. He
was a son of Jean Chouet and Marie Magdeleine Magdile. Before setting out for
Detroit, May 25, 1701, he gave his property, in event of his death, to Mary Magde-
leine Delisle.
Cirier, Martin. Son of Nicolas Cirier and Catherine Prevoost of the parish of St.
Denis d'Argenteuil of Paris. He was a soldier of the company of de la Champagne
and married Ann Bone, June 12, 1710. I find the name spelled Sirier sometimes,
but Martin could write and he spelled it Cirier.
Clairambaut, Francois, esquire, sieur D'Aigremont. Commissary of the marine in
Canada, sub-delegate of the Intendant and deputy appointed to visit the most ad-
vanced posts. He visited Detroit, Fort Pontchartrain, July 29, 1708.
Cobtron, see Marsac.
Colin, Michel, called Laliberte. Came in 1706.
Collet, Pierre, voyageur. Came June 15, 1706.
99
Compein (called L'Esperance) Bonaventure. Soldier and farmer. His wife was
Catherine Laplante.
Compein (called L'Esperance), Marie Catherine, daughter of Bonaventure, above.
She was baptized November 14, 1707.
Compien (called L'Esperance) Pierre. Son of Bonaventure, above. Was born
January 12, 1710.
Cornic, Pierre.
Corton, Pierre, called St. Jean. Came May 30, 1705, as bargeman.
Cosset, Francois. Came as bargeman May 30, 1705.
Couk, Marguerite, wife of Francois Masse. Marguerite Couque is referred to as
the wife of the late Jean Fafare, and Marguerite Kouque, as the wife of sieur Masse.
These may be the same party.
Coup, Isabelle. Came to Detroit as early as April 27, 1704.
Coutant (called Rancontre) Francois Judile, a soldier. His wife was Marie Agathe
Bluteau, above.
Coutant, Jean. A soldier of the company of Lorimier. He was buried September
17, 1732, aged sixty-five years.
Coutant (called Rancontre) Louis. Son of Francois, above, baptized February 13,
1708.
Couturier, Joseph, voyageur. Came September 6, 1710.
Cusson, Ange. Came as bargeman May 30, 1705.
Cusson, Charles, voyageur. Came April 20, 1709.
Cusson, Jean Baptiste. Came April 11, 1707.
Cusson, Joseph. Came October 7, 1706.
Cusson, Nicolas, voyageur. Came October 7, 1706.
Dandonneau, Marie Francoise, wife of the second marriage of Henry Behsle, sur-
geon. Died May 8, 1711, aged about fifty years.
Dardennes, Toussainte. Came May 12, 1707.
D'Argenteuil (probably Pierre), gardener.
David, Therese. Wife of Jacob de Marsac de Cobtron, dit Desrochers. She was
buried September 24, 1727, aged sixty-six years.
Daze, Charles. Came July 16, 1702.
De Broyeux, Francois. Came as bargeman May 30, 1705.
De Couague, Charles, jr. Came as bargeman May 30, 1705.
De Gaigne, Jacques, jr., eighteen years old. Agreed to work for Jerome Merilat,
dit Sansquai'tier, for two years.
De La Forest, Francois, captain of the troops of the marine in this country. Like
many other French words the letter s is frequently dropped in writing this name, so
that we find it De La Foret.
De La March, Dominique. Recollect priest, lecturer in theology, pastor of Ste.
Anne's.
De La Marque, Marianne. Wife of Alphonse de Tonty. She was the widow of
Jean Baptiste Nolan, and had a daughter, Louise Suzanne Nolan, who married
Charles Francois de Mezieres, esquire, sieur de Leperueinche, December 17, 1725.
De La Mothe Cadillac, Antoine. The founder of Detroit. He was born in 1661,
the son of Jean de La Mothe and Jeanne de Malenfant. Married Marie Therese
Guyon, daughter of Denis Guyon at Quebec, June 27, 1687.
100
:;:£.'," ■'^.'yy -^
De La Mothe Cadillac, Antoine. Ensign in the troops, son of Cadillac.
De La Mothe Cadillac, Antoine (or Jean Antoine), son of Cadillac. Buried in the
church, April 9, 1709, aged two years, two and a half months. I think this is the
same as Jean Antoine, who was baptized January 19, 1707.
De La Mothe Cadillac, Francois. Son of Cadillac. Born March 29. 1709.
De La Mothe Cadillac, Jacques. Son of Cadillac. Cadet in the troops of the de-
tachment of marines.
De La Mothe Cadillac, Mane Agatha. Daughter of Cadillac. Born December
28, 1707.
De La Mothe Cadillac, Rene Louis. Son of Cadillac. Born March 17, 1710.
De Launay, Joseph. Came September 27, 1710.
De I'Halle, Constantin, Recollect priest, killed June 6, 1706. His body was ex-
humed, transported and reburied within the church of Ste. Anne.
De Liard, see Bouet.
De Lisle, see Bienvenue.
De Lorme, see Fafard.
Delpeche, Francois. Came May 17, 1710.
Demers, Maximilien. Came May 30, 1705.
Deniau Cherubin. Recollect priest, pastor of Ste. Anne's.
Deniau, Rene. Died July, 1730, aged eighty years.
De Paris, Denis.
Depre (or Despre), Joseph.
De Ranee, see Le Gautier.
Derruon, Pierre, esquire, sieur de Budemond.
Dervisseau, Julien. Lieutenant in the troops.
Desautels, Gilbert, dit Lapointe. Came as bargeman May 30, 1705.
Des Jardins, Suzanne. Wife of Pierre La Fleur.
Desloriers, Jean Baptiste. Jean Baj^tiste du Fournel, dit Desloriers, aged fifty
years, was buried October 31, 1731.
Desmoulins, Charlotce, dit Philis, daughter of Jacques Desmoulins and Charlotte
Sanarias, was born November 22, 1709, and died January 8, 1710.
Desmoulins, Jacques, dit Philis. His wife was Charlotte Sanarias.
Desmoulins, Jacques. Son of the above Jacques Desmoulins ; was baptized March
30, 1708, and died April 14, 1728.
Desmoulins, Marie. Wife of Blaise Sontieureuse.
Desnoyers, Joseph. Married Magdeleine Robert, daughter of Pierre Robert and
Angelique Tholme.
Desrocher, or Derocher, see Marsac.
Desrosiers, Jean Morean. Came as bargeman May 30, 1705.
Desrosiers, Joseph, called Dutremble. Came September 27, 1710.
Devinon, Pierre, esquire, sieur de Budemond. Lieutenant in the troops.
Dizier, Michel, called Sans Quartier. Farmer.
Dounay, Anthoine. Came in the summer of 1704.
Dubor, Dominique. Came as voyageur, June 12, 1706.
Du Chornic, Louis.
Ducharme, Joseph. Came September 10, 1710.
Ducharme, Louis. Voyageur, brother of Joseph. Came May 22, 1709.
101
Duclos, Jacques. A soldier.
D-umouchel, Francoise. Daughter of Bernard Dumouchel, dit Laroche. On the
6th day of Ju]J^ 1703, she agreed to go to Detroit to serve M. and Madam de la
Mothe (Cadillac), for two years at 180 livres per year.
Dumouchel, Paul. Came May 15, 1708.
Duffant, Marie Renie.
Du Figuier, (see Fournier).
Dufresne, Antoine.
Dufresne, Marie Magdelaine. Wife of Pierre Mallet.
Dumay, Jacques. Jacques Pierre Danau, esquire, sieur de Muy, Chevalier of the
Royal and Military order of St. Louis, died May 20, 1758.
Dumay, Marguerite. Wife of Andre Bombardier.
Dumouche, Francoise.
Dupuis, Antoine (called Beauregard). Farmer. His wife was Marie Anne
Marandeau.
Dupuis, Antoine. Son of above, was born June 21, 1707.
Dupuis, Joseph. Son of of Antoine, sr., above, was born January 31, 1709.
Dupuis, Marie Anne. Daughter of Antoine above, was born March 13, 1710.
Duroy, Pierre, dit Deslauriers. Soldier in the company of De La Mothe Cadillac.
He came April 11, 1707. He is also mentioned as a soldier in the company of Dul-
hud (Duluth).
Du Vestin, Salomon Joseph.
Durand (or Durant) Jean. Farmer.
Dussault, Marie. Wife of Jacques Langlois.
Du Sault, Marie, fille mineure. The parents' names are not given.
Dutan, Jacques. Came as bargeman May 30, 1705.
Dutremble, Jean Baptiste. Came in 1706.
Dutremble, Joseph. Came September 28, 1706.
Du Vant, called La Franchise, Pierre. Soldier de la Compagnie de la Corne.
Esteve, Pierre. Called La Jeunesse. Farmer, see Stebre.
Estienne, Estienne. Brother of Dominique Estienne. Came April 26, 1707.
Estienne, Jacques. Came April 18, 1707, with a canoe load of merchandise for
Sieur de Bourmont, ensign in the troops.
Fafard, Charles, dit Delorme. He came April 25, 1707. His father was Francois Fa-
fard, dit Delorme. The descendants from this pioneer are universally called Delorme.
Fafard, Etienne, dit Delorme. Son of Francois Fafard, born September 24, 1708.
Fafard, Francois, dit Delorme. Farmer and interpreter for the king. He died
January 28, 1734, aged about eighty years. His first wife was Magdeleine Mar-
guerite Jobin and his second wife was Barbe Loisel.
Fafard, Joseph. Son of Francois, above. He was born September 24, 1708. He
and Etienne were twins.
Fafard, Magdeleine. Daughter of Francois Fafard, above. She married Prudent
Robert, January 7, 1711.
Fafard, Marie Joseph, dit Delorme, daughter of Francois, above, married Pierre
Auclair, of Charlesburg.
Fafard, Marie Marguerite, daughter of Francois, above. Married Michel Bissilon
June 30, 1710.
102
Fafard, Marguerite, daughter of Jean Fafard and Marguerite Couck. Married
Jean Baptiste Turpin, May 5, 1710.
Fanereau, Charles, voyageur. Lived in Detroit October 6, 1708.
Farland, Jean.
Faverau, Pierre. Called Le Grandeur.
Fayolet, Pierre, called St. Pierre. A soldier of the company of St. Ours. He was
in Detroit May 2; 1709, and acted as godfather to Pierre Casse.
Ferron, Antoine, farmer.
Filiatreau, Jacques, voyageur. Came May 30, 1705. He lived at Lachine and
never resided at Detroit, though he came here several times.
Filie, Michel, esquire, sieur de Therigo, sergeant of troops. Commissioned to
bear letters from France to Cadillac. He came October 16, 1706.
Fortier, Catherine, wife of Gabriel Baudreau. They were married at Montreal,
August 15. 1701.
Fortier, Marthe (or Marie Marthe), wife of Francois Chalut, dit Chanteloup. They
were married in Montreal June 10, 1706. She was a sister of Catherine, above.
Fournier, Louis Rene, sieur du Figuier, ensign in the troops of this country, per
forming the functions of major of the troops in Fort Pontchartrain. He was born
at Montreal May 14, 1673. His mother's name was Helene Du Figuier.
Frapier, Marie Magdeleine, wife of Pierre Stebre, dit la Jeunesse. They were
married at Quebec April 12, 1706, and she died at Detroit, December 22, 1759, aged
eighty years.
Frigon, Francois. He was born in Normandy and came to Detroit May 30, 1705.
Frotant, Angelique. Probably Proteau, which see.
Gagnier, Jacques. Came May 17, 1710.
Galarneau, Louise, wife of Francois Marquet. She was born February 2, 1690,
and married April 26, 1706.
Gallien, Marie Anne. Her first husband was Jerome (Hieronymus) Marillac, dit
Sansquartier, and her second husband was Bernard Phillipe.
Gareau (or Garro or Garraud), Dominique. Came October 3, 1708. He was born
at Boucherville, January 13, 1684.
Gareau, Jean, came September 25, 1707. He was born at Boucherville, November
3, 1679.
Gareau, Pierre. Came as bargeman May 30, 1705. He was born at Boucherville
May 1, 1673. He lived in St. Paul street, Montreal. He was sometimes called St.
Onge, Saintonge, or Xaintonge. The three Gareaus were brothers. Dominique
and Jean never resided in Detroit, but came here together in 1708 and at various
other times. Pierre owned a house and lot in the village, conveyed to him by the
name of Xaintonge.
Gatineau, Louis, sieur Duplessis, came to Detroit June 21, 1706. He was married
January 22, 1710, to Jeanne Lemoyne, at Batiscan. He is described as a merchant
of Quebec.
Gaultier, Marie Louise, wife of Jean Casse, called St. Aubin.
Gaultier (or Gautier), Pierre, dit Saguinoira. Came May 22, 1709. He was born
March 25, 1669, and died July 25, 1754.
Gazaille, Jean, dit St. Germain. Came September 10, 1710.
Germain, Alexis, son of Robert Germain, a native of the parish of Pointe aux
103
Trembles, near Quebec, and came to Detroit May 19, 1708. He was killed May 19,
1712, by a gunshot given by the Ytaganish Indians, with whom be was fighting at
Detroit.
Germain, Robert. Came Alay 18, 1708. He was a brother of Alexis. Born at
Quebec, September 8, 1680.
Gervais, Etienne de Bourguion. July 10, 1703, he agreed to go to Detroit as a
hunter.
Giard, Anthoine. Came May 30, 1705. He was born at Montreal August 31, 1661.
Giard, Gabriel. He was born at Montreal April 15, 1675, and came to Detroit as
a bargeman May 30, 1705. He was married three times.
Giguiere, Jean Baptiste, being about to set out for Detroit June 28, 1701, he made
a present of his property in event of his death to Louise Maignan. He returned to
Montreal and married this lady January 22, 1704. He died April 18, 1750.
Giguiere, Robert, brother of Jean Baptiste. He was born January 28, 1663, and
died at Montreal December 10, 1711.
Giradin, Joseph. Came August 26, 1708.
Gode (or Gaude), Jacques. Came as voyageur November 6, 1707. He was mar-
ried August 15, 1743, to Marie Louise St. Martin, of Detroit.
Godefroy (or Godfroy), Jacques, dit Mauboeuf. Paul Chevalier and Jacques Gode-
froy, dit Mauboeuf, voyageurs, and Joseph Senecal, toolmaker and voyageur, formed
a partnership September 10, 1710, to carry on the business of trading at Detroit. To
this business Chevalier contributed 255 livres, Senecal 165 livres and Godefroy 43
livres and two guns. The partnership was to continue for two years, and if any of
the partners died in that time another man would be taken in to fill the place. Gains
and losses to be shared equally. Godfroy married Marie Anne Chesne at Detroit,
November 20, 1730.
Gognet, Francois, called Sansoucy, a soldier.
Gonin. Joseph, came May 19, 1708, bringing to Dufiguier, major of Fort Pontchar-
train, two barrels of brandy (eau de vie), one barrel of salt, two barrels of powder, a
small parcel of goods and two bags of bullets, in all, 400 pounds.
Gouin, Louis. Came May 18, 1708.
Gourion (or Gorion), Antoine, son of Jean Baptiste Gourion. Born April 26, 1708.
Gourion, Jean Baptiste, sergeant in the troops at Detroit (1708), and farmer. His
wife was Louise Chaudillon, though it is given as Louise Rhodillon in Ste. Anne's
church.
Gros, Jean Baptiste. Born at Montreal December 22, 1673.
Guillemot, Marie Chretienne. Came to Detroit in the employ of Cadillac August
30, 1710. vShe was a daughter of Jacques Francois Guillemot and Madeleine Dupont.
Was born at Montreal September 29, 1695. Returned there and married Jean Jac-
quiers, November 24, 1715, and died November 23, 1734.
Guillet, Paul, merchant. Born 1690, Died in Montreal June 7, 1753. His full
name seems to have been Paul Alexander Guillet. He acted as godfather to Paul
Alexander Campau September 14, 1709, and the infant appears to have been named
after him. He came to Detroit May 19, 1708.
Gustineau, Louis.
Guyon, Jean, dit Lachapelle. Came September 6, 1710.
104
Guyon, Marie Therese, wife of Antoine de La Mothe Cadillac. Born at Quebec
April 9, 1671. Married June 25, 1687. (The first white woman in Detroit).
Hamelin, Rene, voyageur. Came May 18, 1710.
Hemart (or Haimart), Marie Louise. Born December 1, 1709. Daughter of Pierre
Haimart.
Hemart (or Haimart), Pierre, farmer and soldier in the company of M. Lorimier,
Married Marie Laland June 12, 1706.
The records of Ste. Anne contain a certificate of baptism, October 20, 1707, of Fran-
cois Delainart, son of Pierre Delainart and Marie Filiastreau. Father Tanguay
concludes that Hemart and Delainart are the same.
Henaux, Pierre, sr., came to Detroit September 27, 1708. Perhaps the name
should be Hunalt.
Henaux, Pierre, jr. Came September 27, 1708.
Hubert, Ignace, called Lacroix. Came April 20, 1709. He was a son of Ignace
Hubert, of Boucherville.
Hubert, Jacques, dit Lacroix, sr. Came as bargeman May 30, 1705.
Hubert, Jacques, dit Lacroix. Came in 1706. He was born May 12, 1684, and
married September 5, 1705, to Marie Cardinal. He was a son of Jacques Hubert, of
Montreal.
Hubert, Louis, voyageur, came November 6, 1707. He wasabrother of Ignace, above.
Hubert, Pierre, son of Jacques Hubert, dit la Croix, and Marie Cardinal. Was
born at Detroit December 11, 1709, and died October 11, 1724. The family is gen-
erally known by the name of Lacroix.
Hubert, Pierre, voyageur. Came August 11, 1710. He was a brother of Jacques
Hubert, above, and married Francoise Cardinal.
Huet, Pierre, called Duluth, came April 2, 1707. He was a son of Joseph Huet,
born November 13, 1682.
Janot, Pierre. Came May 22, 1709, nephew of Robert Janot.
Janot, Robert (called La Chapelle). Came April 2, 1707. He was uncle to Joseph
Bai;inet, dit Tourblanche.
Jardis, Francois, called Rencontre. Farmer and lot owner in the village.
Jean, Raymond, dit Godon. Contracted October 13, 1703, to go to Detroit as a
farmer.
Jobin, Marie Magdelene, wife of Francois Fafard, dit Delorme, interpreter. She
died at Detroit, January 39, 1711, aged about forty years.
Joly, Jean, surnamed Jolycoeur, sergeant in the troops. He was a native of the
parish of Bury, diocese Xaintes. Died at Detroit, Mich., March 20, 1707, and buried
in the cemetery at Fort Pontchartrain.
Juillet, Jean, called Laplante. Came to Detroit as a bargeman May 30, 1705.
Labatier (or Abatis), Jean. Owned a lot in the village. Jean Labattu, Cochant,
dit Champagne, a soldier. Died in Detroit, February 15, 1712. I think this is the
same person.
Laberge, Guillaume, entered into an agreement October 12, 1703, to come to De-
troit as a farmer.
Labrierre, see Normand.
La Ferriere, Genevieve, wife of Francois Bienvenue, dit Delisle. Born December
8, 1679. She died before 1709. Her family name was Charon.
105
Lafleur, see Poirier.
Laferte, see Levoir.
La Forest, Marguerite, wife of Antoine Levroir. She was born in 1689 and mar-
ried Antoine Terou Laferte (Levroir) June 10, 1706.
La Grandeur, see Faverau.
La Jeunesse, see Stebre.
La Jeunesse, Etienne, came in 1706.
Lalande, Marie, wife of Pierre Hemart.
Laloire, , farmer. There is nothing from which the first name can be de-
termined. Tanguay gives the name Allaire as the same surname as this.
Lamareux, Francois, sieur de St. Germam. Came April 2, 1707. Francois La-
moureu.x, dit Germain, a merchant, was. born 1675 and died December 30, 1740.
La ]\Iarque, Pierre, called Sans Soucy. Came as bargeman May 30, 1705. He
lived at Laprairie, and his wife was Magdeleine Delisle.
La Montagne. called Pierre Mouet.
La Mothe, Magdalaine, Cadillac's daughter.
La Mothe, Marie Therese, daughter of Cadillac, baptized February 2, 1704.
Lamy, Joseph. Set out from Montreal September 6, 1708, to conduct Madame
Ranez to Detroit. Lamy drifted farther west to Kaskaskia, where he became one of
the trustees of the church in 1717, and was killed by the Indians in 1725.
Lanarias, Charlotte, probably Sanarias, which see.
Langlois, Antoine, son of Jacques Langlois. Born November 13, 1709, buried
July 26, 1710, at Detroit, aged about eight and a half months.
Langlois, Jacques, farmer and blacksmith. Born in 1676; he married Marie Dus-
sault. He resided for a time in Detroit, but returned to Montreal, and died there
January 30, 1733.
Langlois, Paul, farmer. Came April 11, 1707.
Laplante, Catherine. Wife of Bonaventure Compien, dit L'Esperance. Her
name, according to the record of baptisms in Sorel, where she was born, was Marie
Catherine Badaillac, dit Laplante, and she was married at Montreal June 10, 1716.
Laporte, see Aguenet.
Laprairie, Julien. Came August 19, 1710.
Larivee, Jean. Came May 19, 1708. He was born August 12, 1667, and died Sep-
tember 9, 1729.
L'Arramee — Tanguay mentions a man by this name, his first name being un-
known, who died in Montreal September 23, 1736.
La Salle, Jean. A soldier of the company of Duluth, native of Peyrourade in
Beam, died January 24, 1707. His body was buried in the church of the Fort Pont-
chartrain du Detroit.
Laude, Joseph, dit Mata. Agreed to go to Detroit as farmer, October 12, 1703.
La Vallee, Jean Baptiste. Soldier of the company of the Cassagne, native of
Quintin, bishopric of St. Brieux, in Brittany. Died November 19, 1711, aged about
thirty years.
Lavois, Jacques, dit St. Amour. Came as bargeman. May 30, 1705. He was a
soldier of the company of La Corne, and married Marie Barbe Cesar, at Montreal,
November 28, 1711.
Leboeuf, Pierre. Came as bargeman. May 30, 1705. His wife was Marie Fran-
106
coise Auzon. He never came here to reside permanently, but some of his children
did.
Le Coutant, dit Rencontre, Magdelaine, daughter of Francois Judit Le Coutaut,
dit Rencontre, born February 5, 1710.
L'Ecuyer, Pierre.
Leduc, Jean Baptiste, son of Jean Leduc, of Montreal. Came October 11, 1710.
He was born in 1684, and married Marie Catherine Descary.
Lefebvre, Louis. Came as bargeman May 30, 1705. His father was Jean Bap-
tist Lefebvre, of Montreal.
Lefebvre, Nicholas. Came May 22, 1709, voyageur. (His father, Jean Baptiste
Lefebvre, lived on St. Peter's River.)
Legautier, Francois, sieur de la Vallee Ranee (see Deranee). Lieutenant in the
detachment of marines in Canada. Came October 2, 1709; died Novernber 12, 1710.
Leger, Bourgery. Came April 2, 1707.
Leger, called Parisien, Marie Jeanne, daughter of Pierre Leger, baptized Decem-
ber 15. 1707.
Leger (dit Parisien), Marie Jeanne, daughter of Pierre Leger, dit Parisien. Born
August 9. 1709. These two children of the same parents bear the same name. There
is no record of the death of either.
Leger (called Parisien), Pierre, farmer. His wife was Jeanne Boilard, to whom
he was married at Quebec, May 15. 1706.
Legros, Jean, called Laviolette, born December 22, 1673. He married Marie Buet,
November 24, 1700. He came to Detroit September 6, 1708.
Legros, Nicolas. Came as bargeman May 30, 1705. He was an elder brother of
Jean Legros, and married Marie Charlotte Turpin.
Le Maire, Charles, dit St. Germain, voyageur. Came October 17, 1707, with a
canoe of merchandise for the Recollect fathers. He was a captain of militia in La-
chine. Born 1676, died 1751.
Le May, Michel. Agreed, April 25, 1704, to come to Detroit as a brigadier (fore-
man of a boat's crew).
Le Mire, Jean, de Marsolet. Came as bargeman May 30, 1705. His mother'sname
was Louise Marsolet.
Le Moyne, Alexis, sieur de Moniere. Came before October 2, 1709.
Le Moine, Jacques, merchant. Came June 21, 1706.
Le Moine, Rene, merchant.
Le Moyne, Marie, wife of Francois Bienvenue, dit Delisle, married in 1708. He
had another (first) wife, Genevieve Laferiere. Marie Le Moyne, aged about seventy
years, was buried September 6, 1764.
Le Moyne, Rene (or Rene Alexander). Came October 12, 1706. Born in 1668, he
married Marie Renee Le Boulauger, February 2, 1712.
Le Page, Marie. Born in Montreal, 1684, she married June 12, 1706, at Montreal,
Francois Beauceron. The date of his death is not given, but it was before 1709, for
she is mentioned at that time as a widow. She is the only woman to whom any land
was conveyed by Cadillac, within the palisades. Her husband was living at this
time (1707), but she was probably separated from him, as he is not mentioned. She
must have subsequently married Joseph Vaudry, for they are called legal husband
and wife in 1720, and had a child, Mary Magdeleine. It is with the name of Marie
107
Lepage that the first great social scandal of Detroit is connected. The pages of Ste.
Anne's record with glaring plainness the false step of this unfortunate woman. It
is now impossible to tell, the penance that she performed in atonement for her wrong-
doing. The church record, possibly', operated to deter others from following in her
path. Whether the man lost prestige or not is unknown, but we do know that he
left Detroit about the time this affair became public, and returned to Montreal,
where he was appointed the trusted agent and attorney for Cadillac, and retained
that position as long as Cadillac remained at Detroit.
Le Page, Marie Therese, daughter of Marie Le Page, widow of the late Bausseron
and of sieur Grandmenil, commis du Magazin. Born July 24, 1709. This is the first
record of an illegitimate child. It is not profitable to trace the descent of this un-
fortunate.
Lescuyer, Anthoine, came May 28, 1708. He was born in Montreal May 28, 1688.
Lescuyer, Jean and Paul, brothers. Came May 29. 1706. They, with Jacques
Minuille, brought ten cattle and three horses from Fort Frontenac to Detroit, for
Cadillac. They were sons of Pierre Lescuyer, born in Montreal June 16, 1681, and
February 15, 1676, respectively.
Lescuyer, Pierre. Came as bargeman May 30, 1705. He was a brother of the
three preceding persons. Born in Montreal February 9, 1674.
Lesieur, Jean Baptiste, dit Callot. Came as bargeman May 30, 1705.
L'Esperance, see Compien.
L'Espine, Marie Magdelaine, wife of Joseph Parent. She was the daughter of
Jacques Marette, dit L'Espine.
L'Esquier, Pierre, voyageur.
Le Tendre, Adele Genevieve, probably came to Detroit with Mme. La Mothe,
Cadillac's wife, as she was god-mother to his daughter, Marie Therese, in 1704.
Leveille, Laurent, came June 15, 1706. He was a Pani Indian.
Levroir, called Leferte, Antoine. The name should be Antoine Theroux. He
was born in 1677 and died February 22, 1759.
Levroir, Pierre, son of Antoine Levroir, above, baptized February 22, 1707. He
married Rose Poitevin in 1733.
L'Isle, see Bien venue.
Livernois, Francis. Francois Benoit, dit Livernois, came to Detroit April 2, 1707.
He married Angelique Chagnon in 1710. The name Livernois is quite common in
Detroit now.
Loisel, Barbe, wife of Francois Legautier, Esq., sieur de Lavallee Ranee, lieuten-
ant. Set out to go to her husband at Detroit, September 6, 1708. She was
married three times. First to Pierre Roussel, then to Legautier, and, in 1713, to
Francois Fafard, dit De Lorme.
Loranger, Joseph, dit Rivard, dit La Jauge, see Rivard.
Loranger, Nicholas, dit Rivard, voyageur, see Rivard.
Lubert Jacques.
Magdeleyne, Jean Baptiste, dit Ladouceur, came in 1706. He was born in Mont-
real in 1681 and married Elizabeth Millet.
Magnant, Antoine, dit L'Esperance. He lived within the palisades and owned a
lot there, but he is described in Ste. Anne's records as a citizen of Montreal (1708), a
voyageur at present at Fort Pontchartrain. He was born September 24, 1682, at La-
prairie.
108
Magnan, Gaspard, dit Champagne, came as bargeman, May 30, 1705. He mar-
ried Magdeleine Marsille, February 9, 1699.
Maionee, Marguerite.
Maisme, Marie.
Major, see Boutran.
Malet, Antoine, son of Pierre Malet. Baptized August 16, 1706. He married
Therese Mailhot, August 11, 1730.
Mallet, Francois, son of Pierre Mallet, born July 38, 1708.
Mallet, Pierre, farmer, voyageur, citizen of Detroit. His wife was Magdeleme
Dufresne, widow of Francois Pelletier.
Mallet, Rene, voyageur, came November 6, 1707. Apparently he was the father
of Pierre Mallet, and died at Montreal, October 24, 1716.
Marces, Francois, a soldier.
Marcil, Andre, came May 17, 1710.
Marendeau, Marianne (or Maranda) wife of Antoine Dupuis, dit Beauregard.
They were married at Montreal, June 9, 1706, and she returned and died there Janu-
ary 8, 1730.
Marquet, Francois. His wife was Louise Galerneau, and they were married April
26, 1706, at Quebec. They left Detroit some time before Cadillac did, and their third
child, Pierre, was born in Montreal in 1710.
Marquet, Joseph, son of Francois Marquet, born May 22, 1707.
Marquet, Marguerite, daughter of Francois Marquet, born March 20, 1709.
De Marsac de Cobtron, Francois, son of Jacob de Marsac. Baptized October 22,
1706. He married Therese Cecile Campau in 1734, and one of their daughters, Marie
Louise, became the wife of Robert Navarre in 1762.
De Marsac de Cobtron, Jacques, son of Jacob de Marsac. Born November 7,
1707; died December 24, 1745, aged about forty years. The priest guessed at his
age, but the record shows that he was thirty eight years of age.
De Marsac de Cobtron, Jacob, sieur Desrochers, sergeant in a company in the de-
tachment of marines. ' His wife was Therese David. He was buried April 27, 1747,
aged eighty years. Their son Jacques married Marie Anne Chapoton, daughter of
Jean Chapoton, surgeon, January 25, 1745.
Marsac, Jerome.
Marsille, Andre.
- Martiac, Jerome, dit Sansquartier (or Sanscartier), son of Maurice Martiac and
Jeanne Damiot, of the parish of Chaubouline, bishopric of Brines in Limozin. Died
June 10, 1709. He was a soldier of Detroit. His wife was Marie Anne Gallien. His
name is sometimes spelled Marillac.
Martiac, Magdeleine, daughter of Hierosmes Martiac (called Sansquartier). Bap-
tized January 22, 1707.
Martiac (called Sans Ouartier). Pierre Jerome, son of Jerome Martiac, dit Sans
Quartier. Baptized March 28, 1709.
Martin, Claude, came June 15, 1706.
Masse, Francois, farmer. His wife was Marguerite Couk, called Lafleur. They
were married in 1702. She had been the widow of Jean Fafard.
Masse, Jeanne, became the wife of Michel Campau in 1696. She had a daughter
Marie Anne Campau, who became the wife of Pierre Belleperche.
109
Masse, Michel. He lived in Montreal, but visited Detroit.
Maurisseau, Jacques, voyageur. Came June 15, 1706.
Maurivan, Jacques, came 1706.
Maurivan, Louis, came 1706.
Melain, Marie, wife of Blaise Fondurose, a soldier. She was born in 1689, mar-
ried June 9, 1706, lived in Detroit several years, but returned to Montreal and died
there April 26, 1713.
Merssan, Jean, dit Lapierre. Came as bargeman. May 30, 1705. He is men-
tioned as a marguillier, or church trustee, probably of Quebec, by Tanguay. He
was born in 1685 and died April 16, 1718.
Michel, Jean, agreed to go to Detroit as farmer, October 12, 1703. He probably
lived at St. Francois du Lac.
Mikitchia, Joseph. Slave belonging to Michel Bezaillin ; Tete Platte (flat head).
Baptized March 10, 1710, sixteen years old.
Milhet (or Millet), Nicolas, came March 3, 1709. January 4, 1712, he married
Louise Cardinal.
Minville (or Miville), Jacques. Came May 29, 1706. He, with Paul and Jean
Lescuyer, brought ten cattle and three horses from Fort Frontenac to Detroit, for
Cadillac. His wife was Catherine Lescuyer, of Montreal.
Moitie, Marie, wife of Pierre Chesne, according to Tanguay, married, October 9,
1700, at Montreal. She was the widow of Jean Magnan, and died December 31,
1727.
Monet, Pierre, see La Montague.
Monjeau, Gabriel, voyageur. Came April 23, 1710. He was born in 1690 and
died April 27, 1718. He did not stop long in Detroit.
Monteil, Rene, dit Sansremission. Came as bargeman. May 30, 1705. He did not
remain long in Detroit. He died at St. Ours, March 4, 1724.
Montfort, , soldier of the company of Desgly; found dead in the woods at
the foot of a tree, buried December 21. 1709. I cannot find the first name of this
soldier.
Morand Pierre. Came as a bargeman. May 30, 1705. He died at Batiscan, June
11, 1729.
Moreau, Joseph. Came as a bargeman. May 30, 1705. His home was at Batiscan.
Morin, Moise, dit Chesnevert. Came as bargeman, May 30, 1705. He was a ser-
geant in the company of Beaucour. Born in Poitiers, Poitou. He married Mag-
deleine Monin, November 26, 1707, and made his home at Quebec.
Morisseau, Louis, came June 15, 1706.
Morisseau, Pierre, came as bargeman, May 30, 1705.
Normand, Angelique, daughter of Louis Normand, dit Labriere. Born June 20,
1707. She was married three times; to Jean De Launay, to Jacques Beda, and to
Jacques Hermier.
Normand, Louis, dit Labriere, tool maker. Came June 7, 1706, to work at his
trade. He was born at Quebec, October 13, 1680. Married Anne Bruneau, May 29,
1701. and died July 15, 1729.
Normand (called La Briere), Marie Therese, daughter of Louis Normand, dit
La Briere, born at Detroit, September 1, 1705.
Ouabankikow, Marguerite, an Indian of the Miami tribe, the wife of Pierre Roy.
110
There is no record of her marriage, though the priest called her a legal wife. She
died of small-pox October 31, 1732. She had six children, baptized in the church at
Detroit.
Pachot, Jean Marie Daniel. He was born July 30, 1694, and was the son of Fran-
cois Vienay Pachot and Charlotte Francoise Juchereau. After his father's death,
his mother married Francois de la Forest, a heutenant under Cadillac, and after-
wards commandant at Detroit.
Paquet, Jean. He was born in 1682, and February 20, 1708, married Marie Char-
land.
Parent, Joseph, farmer, master toolmaker and brewer. His wife was Magdeleine
Marette, whom he married at Beauport, January 31, 1690. On the 9th of March,
1706, he agreed with Cadillac to go to Detroit to work at his trade for three years.
Parent, Marie, daughter of Joseph Parent and Magdeleine Marette, dit Lespine,
baptized January 21, 1709.
Parent, Marie Madelaine, daughter of Joseph, above, born at Beauport, December
15, 1692, and came with her parents to Detroit between the j'ears 1706 and 1709.
Parent, Marguerite, daughter of Joseph, above, born at Montreal, July 7, 1698.
Parisien (see Leger).
Pastorelle, Anne, wife of Andre Channet, dit Camiraud. He was her second
husband. Her first husband was Jean Moriceau.
Patenostre, Jean, of St. Lambert, came September 6, 1710.
Pepin, Jean, came as bargeman May 30, 1705.
Perrin, Mathieu, dit Garaho (or Garaut), came October 2, 1709. He was taken
prisoner by the Iroquois while taking goods to Fort Frontenac in 1688. The next
year Jeanne Pilet was also taken prisoner by the Iroquois. They met as prisoners,
and forming an attachment for each other, were married by Fr. Miller, Jesuit, who
was also a captive of the Iroquois at that time.
Petit, Marie, wife of Pierre Poirier, dit Lafleur. Tanguay gives the name as Marie
Clemence Maupetit.
Philippes, dit Belhumeur, Bernard, sergeant in the troops of the department of
marines. He married Anne Gallien, widow of Jerome Marillac. They had both
lived in Detroit, but were married in Montreal, March 18, 1712.
Picard, Alexis, came as bargeman. May 30, 1705. Brother of Francois, mentioned
below. He was born in 1681, and died at Montreal, April 22, 1745.
Picard, Francois, came as voyageur, May 30, 1705. His wife was Anne Farreau.
He died at Detroit, October 7, 1728.
Pichet, Pierre. He was born in 1674, married Marie Ann Sylvester at Pointe aux
Trembles in 1697 and died August 12, 1712, at Cape Sante.
Pineau, Thomas, dit Bundemour, sergeant in troops of the marine. He was sta-
tioned in Detroit in 1709.
Pinet, Yves, gunsmith, came to Detroit, March 9, 1706, to work at his trade for
three years.
Plante, Zacharie.
Poirier (called La Fleur), Angelique, daughter of Pierre Poirier, dit Lafleur, born
March 10, 1709.
Poirier, Pierre Rene, dit Lafleur, farmer and soldier. He married Marie Clemence
Maupetit, June 12, 1707. Her name is given in Ste. Anne's records as Marie Petit.
Ill
Pothier, Toussaint, dit La Verdure, voyageur, came September 22, 1707. He
lived in Montreal, was born in 1675 and married Marguerite Thunay.
Primo, Jean, dit La , came as bargeman, May 30, 1705. The record from
which this name is taken has been partly destroyed by time and a portion of the
name obliterated.
Protean, Angelique, wife of Etienne Boutron, dit Major. After the death of Bou-
tron she married Pierre Germain and died in 1754.
Quarante, Sols, or Quarant Sous, see Cheanouvouzon.
Quesnel, Jacques and Jean, brothers, voyageurs, came May 18, 1710. They were
sons of Oliver Quesnel. Jean was born at Montreal and Jacques at Lachine. They
lived at Lachine,
Ouilenchive. I cannot make out this name. I think it to be an Indian name
though I may be as sadly mistaken as I was with the name of Xaintonge.
Rabillard, Nicolas, came September 27, 1706.
Reaume, Charles, voyageur, came September 28, 1710. The only person I can
find bearing this name was a son of Rene Reaume, born April 17, 1688, at Charles-
bourg.
Renaud, Charles, esquire, sieur Dubuis.son, lieutenant of a company and command-
ant at Fort Pontchartrain at Detroit, in the absence of M. de Laforest. When Cad-
illac left Detroit, Laforest agreed to take his place here at once, but was taken sick
and Dubui.sson was sent here temporarily to hold it until Laforest's recovery.
Renaud, Louis, dit Duval, came June 16, 1706. Antoine Renaud married Francoise
Duval. The records do not contain the name of Louis as one of their children, but
because he was called Duval, I conclude he was a child of this marriage.
Rencontre, or Rancontre, see Jardis.
Reneau, Larent, voyageur, came May 23, 1710. He married Anne Guyon at St.
Augustin in 1695, and after 1698 he lived at Montreal.
Rhodillon, Louise, wife of Jean Baptiste Gouriou. This name should be Chau-
dillon. She was born January 11, 1682, at Sorel, and married Gouriou June 22, 1701.
Richard, Claude, came April 2, 1707. The only Claude Richard I find was a son of
Guillaume Richard, born January 30, 1684. I find no record of his marriage or death
Richard, Jean, farmer and interpreter for the king. His wife was Marie Anne
Ladecouverte (or Yon). Being dangerously wounded July 7, 1708, he states that he
left with his sister, Mme. Duplessis, 720 livres, for which he holds her note, now in
the hands of his cousin, Jacques Langlois, and he wishes the sum paid to Pierre Roy.
He did not die, however, until several years later.
Rivard, Claude, sieur de Lorange. Agreed with the Company of the Colony of
Canada, represented by Francois Dumontier. of Montreal, and Etienne Volland de
Radisson, of Detroit, to go to Detroit, July 10, 1703, as an interpreter.
Rivard, Francois, dit Montendre, came May 19, 1708.
Rivard, Robert, came as bargeman May 30, 1705.
Rivard, Joseph, dit Montendre, came May 18, 1708.
Rivard, Maihurin, came May 18. 1708.
Rivard, Nicolas, born in 1686. He married Marie Joseph Raux in 1724, and died
in 1729,
Rivard, Pierre, dit Lanouette, voyageur, came September 6, 1710. He was born
in 1686 and married Marie Anne Caillia, June 9, 1721.
112
MERRILL L MILLS.
Rivard, Robert, came May 18, 1708. Robert, Joseph, Mathurin, Claude and
Francois were sons of Robert Rivard, of Batiscan.
Robert, Francois, came in 1706. He was born in 1678, married Marie Lanctot in
1712 and died in 1756.
Robert, Joseph, born in 1674, married in 1701, and died in 1748. He and Francois
and Pierre were. brothers. He came to Detroit May 12, 1707.
Robert, Pierre, dit Lafontaine. He moved to Detroit May 19, 1708, with his wife
and children. He had been there before, having come June 15, 1706, in charge of a
canoe of merchandise. His wife was Angelique Ptolomee (or Tholme). After he
died his widow married Guillaume Bouche, August 16, 1716. At the marriage of his
son Antoine in 1743, this Pierre Robert is referred to as " the late Antoine Robert."
The son married Marie Louise Becmond.
Robert, Prudent, came August 12, 1710 He was another brother of Pierre Rob-
ert, all being sons of Louis Robert. His wife, whom he married at Detroit, January
7, 1711, was Magdeleine Fafard, dit Delorme.
Rose, Nicolas, soldier. He was born in 1674 and died in 1746. His wife was
Marie Anne Prudhomme.
Roy, Edmoud, dit Chatellereau. Agreed to come to Detroit July 28, 1704, as
brigadier (foreman of a boat's crew). He was to receive 300 livres for the trip.
While he never resided in Detroit, his son Joseph did, and was married here in 1736
to Magdeleine Perthuis.
Roy, Louis, came as bargeman. May 30, 1705. He was born in 1659 and died be-
fore 1713.
Roy, Marguerite, daughter of Pierre Roy. Baptized April 27, 1704.
Roy, Marie Louise, daughter of Pierre Roy. She was baptized May 19, 1708, mar-
ried Alexis de Ruisseau, and died in childbirth, December 3, 1735, aged about
thirty-one years.
Roy, Marie Magdeleine, daughter of Pierre Roy. born May 25, 1710. She married
Pierre Chesne, dit La Butte, and died October 20, 1732, aged twenty-two years.
Roy, Pierre. It has been stated that this was the first man at Detroit and that he
lived with the Indians in this neighborhood before Cadillac came. His wife was
Marguerite Oiiabankikoue, a Miami Indian.
Roy, Pierre, son of Pierre Roy. Baptized April 21, 1706.
Roze, Francois and Nicholas, brothers. Came April 13, 1709. They were sons of
Noel Roze and born at Quebec. The name should be Rose.
Ruiet, Jean, came as bargeman, May 30, 1705.
Ruiet, Rene, came as bargeman, May 30, 1705.
St. Aubin, Jean, corporal in the garrison. Came to Detroit with Pierre Duroy,
April 11, 1707. See Casse.
St. Marie, Francois Marie, came as bargeman. May 30, 1705.
St. Yves. Joseph, came August 11, 1710 (engage). He was born in 1692 and conse-
quently only eighteen years of age. The family name was St. Ange, dit Hogue
St. Yves, Pierre, voyageur. Came April 18, 1710. Elder brother of the preceding.
He was born in 1682.
Solomon. I think this name is a mistake, though it occurs in one of Cadillac's
conveyances. I think he intended Salomon Joseph Du Vestin.
113
Sanaria, Charlotte, wife of Jacques Desmoulins, dit Philis. She was born in 1679
and died May 5, 1744, at Detroit.
Sansquartier, see Martiac.
Sarrazin. Joseph, came as bargeman May 30, 1705. Son of Nicholas Sarrazin, born
Februarj' 24, 1681.
Sarrazin, Nicholas, brother of above, born January 12, 1686.
Sarrazin, Pierre, came as bargeman. May 30, 1705. Another brother of above, born
February 26, 1684.
Senecal, Adrien, came as bargeman. May 30, 1705.
Senecal, Joseph, came September 10, 1710. He was born in 1674 and died Febru-
ary 28, 1736. His wife was Louise Bareau, or Barros.
Serond (called L'Eveille), Jean.
Simon, Gilbert, or Simon Sanspeur, dit Gilbert, sergeant in the troops. His wife
was Marguerite Le Page. She died July 20, 1730, at Detroit.
Simon (probably Pierre), came May 18, 1708. The first name of this party has
been destroyed in the notarial record, but his residence is given as Pointeaux Trem-
bles, and the only Simon living at that place at this time was Pierre.
Sirier, Martin, see Cirier.
Slave (Panis), Jacques. A little slave of Pierre Roy, aged seven or eight years.
Slave The first mention of negroes is two of Louis Campau's in 1736.
Slave (Panisse), Marie Jeanne, belonging to Jean Richard, voyageur, aged about
fifteen years.
Slave (Panis, Indian), belonging to M. Moynier, aged twelve to fourteen years,
died November 16. 1710.
Slave (Panis, Indian), Joseph, called Escabia. Belonging to Joseph Parent, aged
twenty-one or twenty-two years. He died January 21, 1710.
Sontieureuse, Blaise ; lately employed as a soldier in the company of De la Mothe
(1707). Tanguay savs his name should have been Fondurose.
Sontieureuse, Marie, daughter of Blaise Sontieureuse. Born May 14, 1707.
Stebre, dit La Jeunesse, Agathe, daughter of Pierre Stebre, dit La Jeunesse,
Born February 14, 1710, died February 21, 1710.
Stebre, dit La Jeunesse, , daughter of Joseph Nicolas Stebre. Born Janu-
ary 12, 1711. The priest has omitted to give the first name of the infant. On Janu-
ary 19, 1733, they buried Angelique Esteve, wile of Pierre Belleperche, aged about
twentj^-one years. She died of small-pox. This may be the one born January 12,
1711.
Stebre, called La Jeunesse, Pierre, late a soldier. Died July 16, 1736. His wife
was Marie Magdeleine Frappier. She died December 22, 1759, aged eighty years.
He was at Montreal August 27, 1767. He had a daughter Marguerite, who married
Jean Chapoton, surgeon of the fort, July 16, 1720. She died July 7, 1753, aged forty-
five years. The name is sometimes given us as Esteve, and Steve, but the descend-
ants are now usually called La Jeunesse.
Stebre, dit La Jeunesse, Pierre, son of Pierre Stebre. Born May 1, 1708. Married
(as Steve) Marie Desforges, widow of Francois Picard, October 24, 1729. Died
March 24, 1731.
Surgere, Blaise, farmer. I find frequent mention of this name, but cannot identify
its possessor, unless it is the same as Sontieureuse, above.
114
Susart, called Delorme, Francois (probably an error on the part of the priest in
writing the name of Fafard), dit Delorme.
Tabaux, Jacques. Came as bargeman, May 30, 1705,
Tabaux, Jean, jr. Came May 15, 1708. He married Angelique Brunet in 1710
and died at Montreal in 1728.
Tacet, Pierre.
Tesee, Francois.
Tessier, Paul. He was a resident of Montreal. Came to Detroit in 1708, and was
here again in 1710, when he witnessed the marriage of Martin Cirier and Marie
Anne Bone.
Tessier, Antoine, farmer.
Tetreau, Jean Baptiste, Joseph, and Laurent, brothers. Came April 21, 1707.
Tholme, Angelique, wife of Pierre Robert. This name is given as Angelique Da-
lonne, and in some places as Ptolme, by Tanguay. She was buried in 1744, aged
about sixty-five years. She married Guillaume Bouche, after the death of Robert.
Tichenet, Pierre.
Tonty, Alphonse, captain of a company, aged sixty-eight years. Buried Novem-
ber 10, 1727. His first wife was Anne Picote. She and Cadillac's wife were the
first women in Detroit. She died in 1714, and in 1717 he married Marianne Dela-
marque, a widow of Jean Baptiste Nolan. Tonty was an Italian, and frequent
references are made to the Italian schemer.
Tousignan, Michel, dit Le Pointe. Came September 6, 1710. He was the son of
Pierre Tousignan, and married Marie Catherine Lemay.
Trottier, Alexis. Came May 18, 1708. Son of Antoine Trottier and brother of
Paul, below. He married Marie Louise Roy at Detroit, January 6, 1735, and after
her death married Catherine Godfroy.
Trottier, Gabriel, dit St. Jean. Came as bargeman. May 30, 1705.
Trottier, Joseph, dit Desruisseaux. Came on October 17, 1708. He was a brother
of Michel, and born in 1668. His wife was Francoise Cuillerier.
Trottier, Michel, sieur de Beaubien. Came May 18, 1708. He was born in 1675
and married Agnes Godfroy in 1700.
Trottier, Paul (brother of Joseph). Came October 17, 1708.
Truteau, Jean Baptiste, married Magdeleine Parant September 1, 1715, and died
in 1754.
Truteau, Joseph, carpenter, brother of Jean Baptiste. They came together April
2, 1707. Joseph died at Montreal in 1745.
Tuffe, called du Fresne, Antoine. The only person I can find bearing this name
was born in Montreal August 21, 1677.
Tune, Magdeleine, wife of Pierre Malet. This name should be Du Fresne. Sht -
was born in 1669 and married Francois Pelletier. After his death she married Pierre
Malet, or Maillet.
Turpin, Jean Baptiste, son of Alexander Turpin and Charlotte Beauvais, of Mon-
treal. Married Marguerite Fafard, daughter of the late Jean Fafard and Margue-
rite Conique, of this parish an'd new colony. May 5, 1710.
Turpin, Jean Baptiste, voyageur. Came October 2, 1709.
Turpin, Jean Baptiste, son of Jean Baptiste T.urpin. Born December 14, 1710.
Vaudry, Etienne, voyageur. Came August 3, 1707. Born at Three Rivers, Oc-
tober 27, 1685.
115
Vaudry, Jacques. Came as bargeman May 30, 1705. Born in 1670, and died in
1743.
Vaudry, Joseph. Came August 19, 1710. He was born in 1687, and married Mar-
guerite Lepage, widow of Simon Gilbert. Etienne, Jacques, and Joseph were broth-
ers and sons of Jacques Vaudry and Jeanne Renault.
Veron, Etienne, de Grandmenil, appointed attorney in fact for Cadillac, July 26,
1709. His name has been mentioned above. He was born in 1649, married Marie
Moral, dit Montendre, and died at Three Rivers May 18, 1721. He lived several
years at Detroit, and was a man of considerable importance, having charge of the
public storehouse and acting as amanuensis for Cadillac.
Vien, Ignace, Came as voyageur, June 12, 1706. Died 1751, aged eighty years
Villain, Pierre, soldier in company of De La Mothe.
Volant, Jean Francois, sieur de Fosseneuve. Agreed to go to Detroit to serve as
a hunter, July 10, 1703. He was born in 1670, and married Marguerite Godfrey June
6, 1701.
Xaintonge, . When I first encountered this name it stood alone without
any connecting names. I concluded it was an Indian name and so stated. Further
investigation has led me to conclude that I was greatly mistaken, and that the in-
dividual was named Pierre Gareau, dit St. Onge, and that the name St. Onge has
been gradually changed to Saintonge and from that to Xaintonge.
Zerbain, Pierre, dit St. Pierre, a soldier.
CHAPTER XIII
How the Confusion Arose Among the Names of the Pioneers — Father Christian
Denissen's Discoveries Regarding the Changing of Family Names.
In compiling these records Mr. Burton was somewhat embarrassed
by the confusion which existed among the early names, and said:
" I confess that I do not understand how the old French names were made up.
It seems that each member of a family . . . took to himself such a name as
he saw fit — possibly taking the name of some tract of land — some seigniory that
he possessed and named. Thus we have, in many instances, a family of brothers
each bearing a different name. The use of the given name was little known. . . .
Even as late as 1700 the use of the surname was not fully understood, and it is no
unfrequent circumstance to find the name of a descendant entirely unlike that of his
ancestor."
The same difficulty has been experienced by all students of French
colonial history and genealogy, and Mr. Burton's frank statement for-
tunately elicited the following explanation from Rev. Christian Denis-
sen, Pastor of St. Charles's church, Detroit:
116
"The early colonists of Lower Canada obtained from the French government
grants of extensive tracts of land. These grants were executed in the medieval
phraseology used under the feudal system of holding real estate. The settlers,
assuming a resemblance between their holdings and the domains of the French
barons and ' seigneurs,' called their large, wild farms by certain titles, and affixed
the same to their own family names, in imitation of the European nobility. In
some cases these titles were confirmed by the government. The owners of these
estates considered themselves seigneurs of this new country, and were proud of the
affixes to their names. In business transactions these additions to their signatures
were used with all their flourishes. At baptisms the titles had to be entered in
the parish registers; at marriages the affix to the old family name sounded high,
both for bride and groom, in the verbose marriage contract; respectability was in-
creased by the presence of many witnesses with titled names.
" In this manner the owners of large estates in Lower Canada, at a certain period
of the seventeenth century, looked upon themselves and upon each other as a quasi-
nobility. Their children naturally assumed these titles, and often thought more of
the affixes than of their own family names. Feudalism was about dead, and fast
dying in Europe in those days, and therefore could not gain foothold in America.
In the eighteenth century we do not find new titles originating; still the old ones re-
mained. The grandchildren and great-grandchildren of these pioneers often dis-
carded the old family names, and were known only by the new title. Hence the new
names the genealogists has to contend with.
"As an illustration, take the Trotier family. The Trotiers of America all de-
scended from Julius Trotier, born in 1590, in the parish of St. Martin, in the town of
Ige, in the province of Perch, France. He, seemingly a common citizen, came with
the family to Canada about the year 1645. His children married in Canada, and, in
the course of time, had large families. The)' obtained extensive estates, and were
very lavish in originating titles for the 'same. In a few years we find Trotier Sieur
des Ruisseaux, Trotier Seigneur de I'lsle Perrot, Trotier Sieur de Beaubien, Tro-
tier Seigneur de la Riviere du Loup, Trotier Seigneur de ITsle aux Herons, Trotier
Sieur des Aulniers, Trotier de la Bissoniere, Trotier dit Desrivieres, Trotier de
Bellecour, Trotier de Valcour, etc. Many of these Trotiers gradually dropped the
family name and signed only the assumed name. Hence we have the families of
Beaubien, Desruisseaux, Bellecour, Labissonniere, Desrivieres, Devalcour, etc. All
these trace to a common ancestor, Julius Trotier.
"Another cause of the change of French names was the custom, so prevalent in
former times, of nicknam,ing themselves and others. This was done sometimes to
discern one family from another of the same name; as one of the Baron families was
nicknamed Lupien — Baron dit Lupien — to distinguish it from other Baron families,
Lupien being the christian name of the ancestor of that family in this country. At
other occasions the nickname originated through family pride. When a member of
a family became distinguished, that branch of a family would annex the christian
name of the hero, or, if a woman, the family name of the revered heroine. In this
manner some Cuilleriers lost their own name through the marriage of John Cuillerier
with Mary Catherine Trotier de Beaubien. This lady was distinguished through
her family title of Beaubien, and after John Cuillerier's death, by becoming the wife
of Francis Picote de Belestre, the last French commandant of Fort Pontchartrain.
117
On this account her children from the first marriage signed themselves Cuillerier dit
Beaubien, and in later generations Cuillerier was dropped and nothing left but
Beaubien. These are the Beaubiens of our vicinity.
" Another instance of the same kind we find in the family of Leonard. Leonard
Simon, born at Montreal, September 3, 1656, was considered by his descendants to
have been a great man, consequently the family name became became Simon dit
Leonard; in time the old name, Simon, was dropped and Leonard became the fam-
ily name. These Leonards we find in Monroe and vicinity in great abundance.
"Again families glorifying the section of country their forefathers came from,
added to their names the province, city or town of their ancestor. In this manner
the Sedilot family, who came from the city of Montreuil, in Picardy, France, became
Sedilot dit Montreuil. So it was with Casse, who emigrated from the town of St.
Aubin ; they became Casse dit St. Aubin, and now are only St. Aubin. The same
we find in Bourgeat, who came from the province of Provence; thej' adopted Bour-
geat dit Provencal, and now are Provencal. We meet with the same case in the
family of Lootman, who are of Holland origin, and moved from the Netherlands to
the province of Berry, France; they became in Canada Lootman dit Barrios; later
on in Detroit we find them as Barrois. The same is true of Toulouse, Champagne,
Gascon, Langoumois, and many others. There were nicknames that originated from
the birthplace, like Nicolas Campau dit Niagara, who was born at the portage of
Niagara, when his parents were traveling from Detroit to Montreal. It happened
also that nicknames were given by Indians, as Labadie dit Badichon, Peltier dit
Antaya. Nicknames have also been given frivolously, and would stick in future
generations, as in the family of Poissant, sounding like Poisson (fish); by adding
Lasaline (salt), Poissant dit Lasaline (salt fish). Another way of nicknaming was by
adopting a peculiar christian name by which a certain person was known in the
community. So we find in the family of Le Tourneux a Jean Baptiste Tourneux,
who settled in Sandwich, opposite the present Michigan Central depot of Detroit,
about 1786 He was known by every one as Jeannette, the diminutive of Jean ; by
incorrect spelling he became Janet and Janette, hence Le Tourneux dit Janette.
His numerous descendants are called Janette. From him we have Janette street in
Windsor, Ont., and farther west, Janette's Creek and Janette railroad station.
"The most curious way of changing names we find in the family of Ellair or
Elaire. The common ancestor is Hilaire Sureau, who came from France and mar-
ried at Quebec, June 18, 1691. His son's name was Peter Sureau dit Blondin, who
married at Montreal in 1723; and his children signed themselves Blondin dit Hilaire.
Their descendants were named Hilaire, and in Detroit the name has been corrupted
into Ellair.
" Other modes might be mentioned. It is singular that scarcely a name has been
adopted from the trade, occupation or profession that a person followed. These
nicknames are attached to the names by the word ' dit,' which might be rendered in
our language by 'called,' 'named,' 'namely,' 'to wit,' 'known as;' but 'dit' is so
idiomatically French that it can hardly be translated into English. The suppression
of 's' in some names, as from Chesne to Chene, Estienne to Etienne is accounted
for by the evolution of the French language from the old form to the modern way
of spelling."
118
During the fifty-nine years of French rule in Detroit the Contunie de
Paris, or custom of Paris, was the law of the land. At first the local
customs of France were in many cases peculiar to each province of
that country, but after the lapse of time they were gradually assimi-
lated and were embodied in the general law. The Coutnme de Paris
was the common law of New France and of all the French colonists in
America. It was continued in Louisiana, and in the States formed out
of it, after the purchase from the French by the United States, unless
expressly abrogated by State or United States statutes, '
The coutnme was a printed book and contained the legal forms for
conveying real estate or personal property by deed or will, for mar-
riage and other contracts, and for other instruments, and these were
drawn up by notaries, who were appointed by the governor-general.
In each of the settlements of New France there was a Notaire-Royal,
who drew up all legal papers, and was a person of legal and social con-
sequence.
CHAPTER XIV.
Cadillac is Made Governor of Louisiana — His Apparent Promotion is a Scheme of
His Enemies — They Confiscate His Property and He Returns to France Ruined and
Heartbroken— 1710-1720.
In 1710 the king appointed Cadillac governor of Louisiana, which at
that time comprised all the territory in the present States of Louisiana,
Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, and parts of Illi-
nois, Kentucky, Tennessee and Iowa. He was directed not to go to
Quebec, but to proceed to Mobile overland. La Forest, who had been
with L'a Salle, and later one of Cadillac's subordinates, was appointed
his successor, but as he was old and in feeble health, he could not come
for a time. Lieut. Joseph Guyon Dubuisson was dispatched to Detroit,
bearing Cadillac's commission as governor of Louisiana, and armed
with authority which made him temporary commandant until La For-
est was able to come. Cadillac remained in Detroit for nearly a year
afterward, during which time he attempted to secure a settlement to
compensate him for his investment. He had an estate at Detroit
which he valued at 125,000 livres, and which he was anxious to realize
119
upon, so that the proceeds might be applied in advancing his new inter-
ests in Louisiana ; but there was no one in the settlement able to buy,
and M. de La Forest had neither money or credit, he said. There was
an area of 400 arpents of cleared land, several houses which the com-
mandant had built to rent, a brewery, a grist mill, a warehouse, an ice
house, and all the rents and seignorial dues appertaining to his office.
He had invested nearly all his capital and could find no purchaser. He
appealed to the the government to take the material off his hands, but
in vain. He was forbidden to sell the cattle he had brought from
Montreal, together with the increase. Even his horse Colin could not
be sold. The regulations prevented him from disposing of a large
store of ammunition and arms which he had purchased. It was kept
in the name of the king on the pretext that the succeeding command-
ant could not buy them, and yet the post could not be maintained
without the use and benefit of Cadillac's private property. The matter
was finally settled by a written agreement in which La Forest was to
allow Cadillac two officers to have charge of his property until some
ships arrived from France at Quebec, next year, at which time he
promised to make a purchase of the property. In the mean time Cad-
illac was to enjoy the revenue of the post as in the past, and was to
allow La Forest two hundred crowns a year. While he remained in
Detroit he collected rents for his buildings, and also the revenue from
the flouring mill. In the spring of 1711 he quarreled with Dubuisson
over the question of authority, and they both appealed to Vaudreuil
with the result that three commissioners, Pierre Roy, Pierre Chesne
and Father Constantine de Niau, were appointed to take an inventory
of Cadillac's property. They made an inventory, and Cadillac left
Pierre Roy in charge. Cadillac's tenants were ordered to pay their
rents thereafter to Dubuisson. As soon as Cadillac departed in 1711,
Dubuisson compelled Pierre Roy to surrender all of Cadillac's property,
which was done. A large quantity of powder, ball and arms, which
had been purchased by Cadillac and stored in the arsenal, was thus
seized by Dubuisson in the name of the king, and he sent a bill there-
for to Intendant Begon and received payment, which showed that he
was nothing but a thief.
Father De Niau wrote Cadillac about the seizure; Cadillac appealed
to Count Pontchartrain ; and in revenge for Cadillac's complaint Du-
buisson had the western half of the stockade torn down. The material
was used to strengthen the eastern half, and a new row of palisades
120
was erected so as to inclose but one-half of the buildings. The house
in which Madame Cadillac and her children still lived, the houses of
Roy, Parent, De Lorme, Campau, Mallette and Robert, all settlers who
had been Cadillac's adherents, the house of the priest, the church and
the home of Dr. Jaubblivois, surgeon of the post, were left outside ex-
posed to the tender mercies of the Indians.
Soon afterward La Forest applied for all the perquisites of the post
in a letter to Governor Vaudreuil. Cadillac protested, but La Forest
said that his own presence was necessary at Detroit because the Indians
were killing each other and everything was in an uproar. In the end,
the retiring commandant got nothing for his investments.
Cadillac left Detroit for France and stayed there for a time, but
probably proceeded to Acadia before going to Louisiana, as the vessel
that brought him to his new charge contained a consignment of
twenty-five young women from Cape Breton in Acadia. He arrived at
Dauphine (formerly called Massacre) Island in Louisiana, on May 13,
1713, in a French frigate. Bienville, who had been governor, was
relegated to second place, and was much disquieted thereby and
showed his jealousy plainly. Cadillac soon found enemies; they sprung
up at every turn and nearly all the French officials conspired against
him. As the De Caens, the Company of the Colony, Aubert, and
other traders of the North, were granted special privileges by the
crown, so Antoine Crozat was granted all the profits of commerce
in Louisiana for a period of fifteen years. The country was remote
from the fur trade, and the adventurers who sought fortunes in the
new world were too impatient to wait for the development of agricul-
ture. Crozat expected to find mines which would enrich him with gold
or silver. His grant was issued in 1712, just a year after Cadillac be-
came governor, and he urged the new chief of the colony to search
diligently for precious metals, promising him a share of the profits.
He also ordered Cadillac to establish trading posts on the Wabash and
Illinois Rivers. Cadillac felt that he was being treated as an agent of
Crozat rather than as the governor of a great area of territory; that as
he was on the ground, and with a general knowledge of the country,
he should be left to formulate plans for the development of the coun-
try, instead of being ordered about by a man who knew nothing about
its natural resources. He wrote to the ministry to express his views:
" I have seen Crozat's instructions to his agents. I thought they were issued from
a lunatic asylum and there appeared to me to be no more sense in them than in the
121
Apocalypse. What ! is it to be expected that, for any commercial or profitable pur-
pose, boats will ever be able to run up the Mississippi into the Wabash, the Missouri
or the Red Rivers? One might as well try to bite a slice off the moon. Not only
are those rivers as rapid as the Rhine, but in their crooked course they emulate to
perfection a snake's undulations. Hence, for instance, on every turn of the Missis-
sippi it would be necessary to wait for a change of wind, if wind could be had, be-
cause this river is lined up with thick woods so that very little wind passes along its
bed."
Cadillac, however, obeyed Crozat's orders in regard to prospecting
for metal ; and sent out a number of exploring parties, composed most-
ly of Canadians. No gold or silver was discovered but lead mines were
found near what is now Dubuque. Gayerre, in continuation of his il-
logical and absurd deprecation of Cadillac, says that his daughter fell
in love with Bienville, who, however, did not seem conscious of his good
fortune and kept himself wrapped in respectful blindness. Cadillac did
not think Bienville was a fit mate for his child, but realizing the in-
evitable, invited his subordinate to an interview and gave him a knowl-
edge of the situation. Bienville, however, declared he would never
marry and the interview ended. The French historian says that Cad-
illac was transported with rage, and to get even sent Bienville on an
expedition against the Natchez Indians, who had murdered four Cana-
dians in Illinois. The force allowed him was thirty-four all told, and he
had to face 800 warriors. Bienville remonstrated, but Cadillac insisted,
and the former departed. His mission, however, was successful; he
forced the Natchez to deliver the heads of the three murderers and re-
turned home in triumph. About this time Cadillac went to France,
probably to consult the government in reference to the affairs in the
colony, which were in an unsatisfactory condition. In his letters he
spoke of " subaltern officers who are swayed entirely by their own in-
terests and care little for the prosperity of the colony. . . There are
as many governors here as there are officers. . , What can I do
with a force of forty soldiers . . badly fed, badly paid, badly clothed
and without discipline?" It was a repetition of his experiences at De-
troit.
He returned to Louisiana, but in a short time came to an open rup-
ture with Crozat, the great French merchant, who told him bluntly
that all the evils he complained of originated from his own bad admin-
istration. Then came a letter of dismissal. At the foot of the letter
the new minister of marine had written these words: "The Governor
La Mothe Cadillac, and the commissary Duclos, whose disposition and
122
humor are incompatible ; and whose intellects are not equal to the func-
tions with which his majesty has entrusted them, are dismissed from
office." Cadillac was succeeded by D'Epinay, who came to Louisiana
in March, 1717, with three French frigates, and Cadillac went back to
France in one of them, and left the new world behind him forever.
Crozat did not prosper under the new regime and threw up his monop-
oly later in the same year.
But little is known of Cadillac's life after he returned to France, but
it would appear that his enemies were not content to let him alone. A
year afterward he'spent the winter of 1718 in theBastile; the cause of
his imprisonment is not known. After being released from the Bastile
he spent much time in efforts to recover the value of his Detroit prop-
erty. He wrote the following letter in 1722 or 1723, to " His most
serene highness, the Count of Toulouse, admiral of France:"
"La Mothe Cadillac has the honor to represent to His Most Serene Highness, that
the answer of MM. de Vaudreuil and Begon is founded only on the report that M. de
Tonty made to them ; consequently it deserves no attention. The petitioner has the
honor to ask His Serene Highness for a formal grant of all Detroit as a Seigniory
[carrying with it], higher, middle and lower jurisdiction, with rights of hunting,
fishing and trading, and on the terms and conditions laid down in the contracts he
has already granted, with the right of patronage of the churches of said seignior}-.
M. de La Mothe very humbly begs his majesty to attach to said seigniory the title of
marquis or count. The jietitioner's warehouses have been pulled down, and also the
timber of the church and other houses with which the fort has been repaired and re-
doubts built; his cattle have been kiUed and eaten; the rents and proceeds of his lands
and his mill have also been taken. His majesty should accord a favor to the petitioner
by granting him a pension of a thousand livres from the funds of the order of St.
Louis, and a pension of like amount to his family on the navy or elsewhere by pref-
erment, or in default of the two, an abbey or a benefice for M. Joseph La Mothe,
son of petitioner, who was born at Detroit, aged twenty-one years, and an ecclesias-
tic. The petitioner asks this as a recompense for his losses and for forty years' ser-
vice he has given the king."
At this time Cadillac was negotiating with the government for his
appointment to the governorship of Castel-Sarrasin, if it had not al-
ready been bestowed upon him. His appointment came in December,
1722, and cost him 16,500 livres. He was authorized to collect rents
and fees of the inhabitants, and of this amount he- was to pay 300
livres annually to the royal treasurer. In 1721 the king, in order to
reward certain of his subjects, deprived certain cities of the right to
elect their municipal executives, and made the offices appointive by the
crown. Three years later the rights were restored to the people, and
123
it is possible that Cadillac was deposed when the election took place.
He died on October 15, 1730, and his remains were interred in the old
Carmelite church of Castel-Sarassin. His wife died in 1746. They
had thirteen children, of whom Magdalene was born at Port Royal or
Mt. Desert, and another daughter whose name is not known. Those
born at Quebec were Antoine, who came to Detroit with his father;
James who came to Detroit with his mother; Peter, Dennis and Mary
Ann, who died young. Those born in Detroit were a child whose bap-
tismal record was probably destroyed by the fire of 1703; Mary
Theresa, who afterward married De Gregoire in France; John Anthony,
died young; Mary Agatha, Francis, Louis, Joseph and another daugh-
ter. His children tried to get possession of his Detroit property, but
their efforts were fruitless. In after years his granddaughter, wife of
Bartholomey De Gregoire, petitioned the State of Massachusetts for
the lands of two townships of extent, on the coast, with the islands in
front, granted to Cadillac by the French crown. Their petition was
successful, and in 1787 they became the owners of the lands, which
comprised 184,272 acres. The Gregoires lived on the island of Mt.
Desert for several years, but sold the property in 1792; they died on
that island and were buried there. The lands are now in the State of
Maine, which was admitted to the Union in 1820.
CHAPTER XV.
Pierre Francois de Charlevoix Visits Detroit in 1721 — Detroit is Declared a Most
Desirable and Important Post — Founding of the Huron Mission at Sandwich in 1728.
The first distinguished visitor of the new colony of Detroit was Pierre
Francois de Charlevoix, a Jesuit, and a learned man, who came from
France to Quebec in 1705, and for four years was a teacher in the col-
lege of the order at that place. He then returned to France, but came
to Canada again in 1720 to write a history of that province. He made
a tour of the lake country and arrived at Detroit in 1721. At Detroit
he wrote letters, one of which recommended that the infant colony
should be strengthened by emigrants from Montreal. He attended a
council of the principal nations who had then villages near Detroit,
124
JAVES MCMILLAN.
where the liquor question and the practice of selling French brandy to
the Indians was discussed. In alluding to Detroit he wrote:
"It is pretended that this is the finest part of all Canada, and really if we can
judge by appearances, nature seems to have denied it nothing which can contribute
to make a country delightful; hills, meadows, fields, lofty forests, rivulets, fountains,
rivers, and all of them so excellent of their kind and so happily blended as to equal
the most romantic wishes. The lands, however, are not equally proper for every
kind of grain, but most are of a wonderful fertility, and I have known some to pro-
duce good wheat for eighteen years running without any manure, and besides all of
them are proper for some particular use. The Islands seem placed on purpose for
the pleasure of the prospect, the river and lake abound in fish, the air is pure and
the climate temperate and extremely wholesome-"
The following is his description of the council of the chiefs of the
three Indian villages near Detroit:
" On the 7th of June, which was the day of my arrival at the fort [Detroit], Mons.
de Tonty, who commands here, assembled the chiefs of the three villages I have
just mentioned, in order to communicate to them the orders he had received from
the Marquis Vaudreuil (the governor-general). They heard him calmJy and without
interruption. When he had done speaking the orator of the Hurons told him in a
few words that they were going to consult about what he had proposed to them,
and would give their answer in a short time. It is the custom of the Indians not to
give an immediate answer on an affair of any importance. Two days afterward
they assembled at the commandant's, who was desirous I should be present at the
council, together with the officers of the garrison. Sasteratsi, whom the French call
king of the Hurons, and who is in fact hereditary chief of the Tinnontatez, who are
the true Hurons, was also present on this occasion, but as he is still a minor, he
came only for form's sake; his uncle, who governs in his name, and who is called
regent, spoke in quality of orator of the nation. Now, the honor of speaking in the
name of the whole is generally given to some Huron, when any of them happen to
be of the council. Imagine to yourself, Madame, half a score of savages, almost
stark naked, with their hair disposed in as many different manners as there are per-
sons in the assembly, and all of them equally ridiculous ; some with laced hats, all
with pipes in their mouths, and with the most unthinking faces. It is besides a rare
thing to hear one utter as much as a single word in a quarter of an hour, or to hear
any answer made evenjn monosyllable; not the least mark of distinction, nor any
respect paid to any person whatsoever. We should, however, be apt to change our
opinions of them on hearing the result of their deliberations."
The above gives a fair picture of an Indian council under French rule
in those parts. The aborigines, being the original owners of the lands
and the source of all the trade, were necessarily consulted on every
measure affecting the polity of the settlement, so that they could co-
operate with the French in carrying it into effect.
135
THE HURON MISSION OF DETROIT.
Father Charlevoix was naturally solicitous for the interests of his or-
der, as well as deeply interested in the spiritual welfare of the Huron
Indians, and accordingly wrote to Quebec soliciting- the father superior
to send a missionary to the Hurons at this point. The Hurons were
the first Indian nation that were converted to Christianity. After a
series of bloody wars with the Iroquois they had been practically wiped
out as a confederacy in 1649. Some of the tribes were forced to join
the nations of the Iroquois and the rest were scattered. Those who
settled in Detroit prospered under French rule, and a report made to
the French government in 1718, showed that their fort and village
was near Fort Pontchartrain ; it was situated about the mouth of the
Savoyard River, which flowed into the Detroit, at the foot of Fourth
street, where the Michigan Central depot grounds are now situated. The
report stated that they were very industrious and raised a large amount
of corn, peas, beans and wheat. " Their fields are free from weeds and
their bark cabins are strong and comfortable, divided into rooms and
very clean. Their fort is strongly inclosed with pickets and redoubled
bastions and strong gates. The magazine in their fort contains at all
times a large supply of grain; their tribal organization is similar to that
of the Iroquois ; they are expert hunters and steadfast friends of the
French. They are talented and most industrious of all the Indian na-
tions in this vicinity ; they were well clad and some wore overcoats in
winter. The men hunt summer and winter and the women are always
at work."
The same report describes the Ottawas on the opposite side of the
strait, their fortification being in the limits of the present town of Walker-
ville, Ont. , opposite the eastern part of Detroit. ' ' Their fort is a strong
one; their cabins similar to those of the Hurons; their people indus-
trious and well clad, and the finest formed and most athletic appearing
of the Indians in the vicinity."
In 1728, seven years after Father Charlevoix's recommendation, the
father superior of the Jesuits at Quebec sent Father Armand de la
Richardie to Detroit. Since the founding of the settlement, the Recol-
lects, of the Franciscan order, had the spiritual care of the garrison and
the colonists on both sides of the Detroit River, and to avoid a conflict
of jurisdiction, Father Richardie obtained authority to found a mission
on the opposite side of the stream, just above the present town of
126
Sandwich, Ont. The shores on both sides of the river at that time
were generally bordered by bluffs from fifteen to twenty feet in height,
but at this point they formed a beautiful semi- circular bay, and sloped
down to the water's edge. The mission was dedicated to the Assump-
tion and the present Church and College of the Assumption stand on a
part of the extensive grounds. The mission house, used at first as the
priest's residence and presbytery, was built of hewn or sawed pine
timber, 30 by 45 feet, and two stories and a half in height, with dormer
windows in the attic. The largest portion of this structure is still
standing and is the oldest building in these parts. The church, built
in the same manner, was 45 by 90 feet. Besides the church and
priest's residence, there was also a large storehouse for furs, an-
other for goods and provisions, and a forge or blacksmith shop, with
suitable outbuildings. This religious and mercantile establishment was
erected primarily and directly for the use of the Hurons living in De-
troit, and they could there barter their furs without fear of being
cheated, and it was also a place where the trade in French brand)^ or
eau de vie could be controlled and its evils lessened. But other Indians
could also trade there, and so also could, and did, many of the citizens
and soldiers of Detroit. In 1738, however, the Hurons became em-
broiled with the Ottawas, and afterward removed to Sandusky, and
about 1742 again removed to Bois Blanc Island at the mouth of the
river, eighteen miles below Detroit. Here Father Richardie sent
Father Peter Potier to be their spiritual guide, and the land was culti-
vated.
In 1747, as will be related further on, the Hurons, invited by the
Iroquois, engaged in a conspiracy against the French in the fort, but
the plot was discovered and no blood was spilled. The sub-mission at
Bois Blanc Island was broken up and Father Potier returned to Sand-
wich, and the Hurons followed him and settled around the mission
house.
Father Potier was born in France in 1709, entered the Society of
Jesus and was ordained to the priesthood in 1742. In 1743 he came to
Quebec and was soon after sent to Detroit to assist father Richardie,
who placed him in charge of the farm and mission at Bois Blanc
Island. Here, in addition to his pastoral duties, he commenced
to study the Huron language and was the author of three grammars of
that tongue before he died. The Huron language is similar to that of
the Mohawks, both being of Iroquois stock. In 1755 Father Richardie
127
gave up the charge of the mission and went to Quebec and was
succeeded by Father Potier. The latter continued the good work of
converting the Indians and ministering to their physical and spiritual
needs until 1781. He became very feeble, being over seventy two
years of age. On July 16, of that year, while in his study he was at-
tacked by vertigo, and falling backward, his head struck one of the
andirons of the hearth, causing a fracture of the skull which proved
fatal. His obsequies were performed two days afterward by Vicar-
General Hubert of St. Anne's, Detroit, and his body was buried
beneath the altar of the old church.
When the present Church of the Assumption was dedicated in 1851,
the remains were reinterred beneath the altar of that church. There
were two other priests who were also disinterred and reburied at the
same time, but Father Potier's remains were easily identified by his tall
stature and the hole in his skull.
THE OLD JESUIT REGIME.
During the long spiritual rule of the Jesuits in America, their cour-
age and zeal in the interest of religion and morality excited numerous
and bitter enmities. In the old world the same qualities and conduct
led them to attack profligacy in high places, and for this and other
causes they were successively expelled from almost every country in
Europe. In 1773, thirteen years after New France had become a
British colony. Pope Clement XIV, at the dictation of three leading
European nations, issued a papal edict, suppressing the Society of
Jesus throughout the world. Sir Guy Carleton, governor of Canada,
heard of the order, and in 1774, when it came to Bishop Brand at
Quebec, he forbade the latter to promulgate it. Carleton, afterward
Lord Dorchester, was a Protestant, and as such had no sympathy with
the order, but he was a statesman. He knew that the Jesuits were the
only persons in Canada who could control the Indians and that Great
Britain would sustain great losses if the order were disintegrated.
Thus commanded, Bishop Brand obeyed, and thereby braved the ter-
rible penalty of excommunication. He explained his course to Rome,
but before action was taken Pope Clement died in 1774, and was suc-
ceeded by Pius VI, who was a friend of the Jesuits. The edict
was obeyed in all parts of the world except Canada and White Russia,
and the missions and other establishments in these countries were held
intact by the order. But Sir Jeffrey Amherst, who had been appoint-
128
ed governor general of the British possessions in America in 1760, and
was governor of Virginia in 1763, coveted the rich lands of the Jesuits
in Canada, and petitioned parliament for them as a recompense for his
services. The question was referred to the judiciary of the House of
Lords, who were quite willing to accommodate a distinguished soldier,
but the fact that the lands had been granted to the Jesuits for
educational purposes, forbade them to make a report favoring Gen-
eral Amherst's interests. They did report, in effect, that any lands
granted to the Jesuits, and not used for educational purposes, might
be escheated to the crown. Amherst paid the expenses of two com-
mittees of investigation, and after his death, in 1797, the matter
was pressed by his son, but their efforts were fruitless. Finally it
was ordered that the Jesuits in Canada should not increase their num-
ber, and that after the death of all the existing members of the order
the property should revert to the crown. At the time there were thir-
teen Jesuits in the whole of Canada, whose names, locations and ages
were as follows:
Augustine de Glapion, superior, Quebec, fifty-five years.
Peter Du Jaunay, chaplain of the Ursuline Convent, Quebec, seventy
years.
John Joseph Casot, Quebec, forty-six years.
Alexis Morquette, Quebec, sixty-four years.
Peter Rene Floquet, Montreal, fifty-eight years.
Bernard Wall, Montreal, fifty years.
Stephen Girault de Villeneuve, with the Hurons at Loretto, near
Quebec, fifty years.
Peter Potier, Huron mission of Detroit, sixty-six years.
Antoine Gordan, Iroquois mission at St. Regis, forty-nine years.
Jean Baptiste de la Prosse, missionary with Abinaquis at Tadousac,
at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, fifty years.
Joseph Huguet, missionary with the Iroquois at Laprairie, forty-nine
years.
Louis M. La Franc, missionary with the Ottawas, fifty-eight years.
Sebastian L. Meaurin, Kaskaskia, 111., sixty-seven years.
The commandants of the various places in which the Jesuits were
stationed were specially instructed in regard to filing reports of the
dates of their deaths, and Col. Arent Schuyler De Peyster, command-
ant of Detroit from 1779 to 1784, was notified to seize Father Potier's
papers immediately after his demise and forward them to the governor-
129
general. De Peyster did so, but the old priest had removed them, and
the notes in his diary for 1761-63 were gone. The reason for the latter
will be related further on in the chapter which treats of Gladwin's de-
fense of Detroit against Pontiac. Father Potier had also taken good
care that the British should not profit at the expense of the order. He
had sold all the lands belonging to the Jesuit mission at Sandwich and
Detroit, the deeds having been signed by the superior of the order at
Quebec, and when he died there remained only the church, the priest's
residence and the graveyard, neither of which could be confiscated.
The other lands of the order in Canada, however, were all seized and
the revenues applied to educational purposes, a majority of which were
non- Catholic. About ten years ago, a movement asking for a restora-
tion of these lands to the order was commenced, and after several years
discussion in parliament it was decided that $400,000 should be con-
sidered as an equivalent of the $4,000,000 worth of property taken from
the Jesuits. It was left to the Pope and his counselors to determine
how it should be bestowed, and they decided that the Catholic arch-
bishop of the Province of Quebec should have the largest half, and the
Jesuit order of that province the smallest half. For legal reasons some
$63,000 were also given for educational purposes to the Protestant de-
nomination in Lower Canada. When all this was done, the matter
was disposed of for all time.
CHAPTER XVI.
Detroit is Besieged by the Sacs and Foxes, Indians from Green Bay — The Church
of St. Anne's Burned — Hard Fought Battle at Windmill Point in Which the Hostile
Indians are Defeated — 1712.
Even with Cadillac out of the way there was still a demand for an
able commandant at Detroit. Dubuisson found himself confronted
with an Indian war in 1712, soon after Cadillac had gone to France to
prepare for his new office. On the peninsula which incloses Green Bay,
and in the adjoining territory, dwelt a tribe of Indians known as the
Foxes; they were Ishmaelites among the western tribes and had a sort
of alliance with the Iroquois of the east. An army of this tribe came
down to erase Detroit from the map in the spring of 1712. Dubuisson,
130
who had a singular gift for romancing, describes them as an innumer-
able throng who came with streaming banners and accompanied by
many allies, each bearing the ensign of the tribe. This was an unusual
practice and was probably a fanciful description. At the time of their
arrival the friendly Hurons and Ottawas were on a hunting trip, but
runners were sent out to notify them, and they returned and rallied to
the defense of the post and were admitted through the gates of the fort.
The Foxes were associated with the Outagamies and Mascoutins when
they commenced the siege. The church of St. Anne was close to the
stockade, and for fear that it might be set on fire by the blazing arrows
and endanger the other buildings, the rattled commandant pro tern.
burned it himself. The hostiles built a long breastwork within two
hundred feet of the fort, and fired hundreds of blazing arrows of pitch
pine into the roofs of the buildings, many of which were thatched with
grass, and the place was in danger of destruction. But the peltries in
the warehouse were brought out, and the roofs were covered with
wetted skins so that the danger from fire was greatly reduced. After
making an unsuccessful attempt to capture the fort, and failing also to
fire it, the hostiles withdrew to the banks of Lake St. Clair, and the
commandant forthwith dispatched M. de Vincennes with a company of
Frenchmen and an army of Indians to drive them away. The attack-
ing party found the enemy entrenched behind fallen trees near the
present Windmill Point. Instead of charging this breastwork and sac-
rificing many lives in the assault, the French and their allies erected
high stagings along the front of the works, and taking positions on
these, they compelled the Foxes to keep under cover. The latter were
not permitted to resort to the lake shore for water and were finally com-
pelled by the torments of thirst to break cover and fly. Dubuisson in
his official report said that 1,000 of the invaders were killed, while his
loss was trivial, but his figures should be taken with due allowance for
an imaginative temperament. It is certain that the survivors of this
foray were a formidable body. They returned to Green Bay, where
they erected a large stockade on a commanding site at " Buttes des
Morts " (" Hills of the Dead ") and they caused that region to be avoid-
ed for years after by the traders of the fur companies.
This trouble compelled the aged De la Forest to come and take
charge of the post in person in 1712, and the friendly Indians who had
been so loyal were rewarded with many presents. One of La Forest's
first acts was to rebuild the church of St. Anne. The first had been
131
destroyed in the mysterious fire of 1703; the second in 1712, to prevent
the attacking forces from using it as a shelter ; and that erected by De
la Forest was the third.
Detroit was but a feeble military station at this time. Of the fifty
soldiers who had come with Cadillac, all but twenty had deserted.
Settlers had not increased because of the discouragements which had
been thrown in their way by the enemies of the post. M. de la Forest
saw the natural advantages of Detroit, and at first urged its develop-
ment into an important settlement, but soon yielded to the subtle influ-
ence of the Mackinaw traders and priests, and did not attempt to
attract settlers. He was old in years and his vital energies were about
spent. Before two years had passed he was relieved by the appoint-
ment of that once gay lieutenant, Charles Jacques Sabrevois, with
whom Cadillac had a serious quarrel in Quebec twenty-nine years be-
fore. Sabrevois was no longer a frivolous lady-killer, but a man of
conservative ideas and he and Cadillac were on friendly terms when
the latter left the colony. He remained in command from 1714 until
1717, when Henry Tonty, brother of Captain Alphonse and son of Bras
de Fer (Hand of Iron), the old companion of La Salle, was made com-
mandant, although the Sieur de Louvigny was acting commandant until
he arrived.
In 1717 the Foxes had become such a detriment to travel in the
northwest that M. Louvigny was sent to Green Bay with an expedition
of French and Indians. For five years the Foxes had so commanded
the territory of Wisconsin that no traders could cross from Green Bay
to the Mississippi, without paying them tribute, and Louvigny laid
siege to their fort with the determination of driving them out. Just as
he was about to order a general assault upon their works the Foxes
surrendered, and after that time the tribe became amalgamated with
the Sac tribe. In 1718 Commandant Henry Tonty received orders to
rebuild the fort, and the work was done so thoroughly that Fort Pont-
chartrain was the best wooden fortification on the continent. He was
relieved of the command in 1720. It was customary to relieve com-
mandants at least once in three years by sending orders by one of the
officers stationed at Quebec, and the official messenger took charge
until the succeeding commandant arrived. The messenger and tem-
porary commandant in this case was Lieut. Joseph Noyelle.
Alphonse Tonty, the new commandant, who was a brother of Henry,
soon arrived from Fort Frontenac, and he remained in command at
132
Detroit for seven years, although his management was characterized
by crooked dealings with the Indians and with his government. He
was consistently dishonest and treacherous to friend and foe during
his term of office. He petitioned for discretionary powers in dispens-
ing brandy to the Indians, and when it was refused he dealt it out sur-
reptitiously. He installed four unscrupulous intimates at the post to
conduct the trading, and abolished the free trading of the settlers.
One of the four was Nolan, who had been in the conspiracy with Ar-
naud, Desnoyer and the other clerks of the Company of the Colony.
The other three were named Chiery, La Marque and Gatineau. The
new traders plied the Indians with liquor, cheated them in trade, and
made the most of their opportunities. Under such conditions the In-
dians began to grow unfriendly, and the older chiefs wanted to go to
Albany to trade, but brandy served as a magnet to hold them to De-
troit, while the commandant and his confederates feathered their nests.
The residents at the post protested against the abuses in a petition to
the governor, but Tonty managed to hold his position for a time.
Other commandants who had succeeded Cadillac had held the property
of the first commandant in the name of the king, and transferred it in
turn to their successors, but Tonty seized everything he could find,
claiming it as his personal property. The grains and garden seeds
introduced by Cadillac had led the settlers and Indians to practice
agriculture, and at the close of several productive seasons considerable
quantities of wheat were shipped out of Detroit to supply the other
posts. Much of this grain was produced by the Indians, who made
great progress, while the whites appeared to be at a standstill.
Meanwhile the complaints against Commandant Alphonse Tonty
were being investigated, and the evidence showed that he was dis-
honest. He was relieved of his command on October 25, 1727, and he
died at Detroit in the following November.
Governor Beauharnois sent M. C. Le Pernouche to Detroit to succeed
Tonty; and in the following year Jean Baptiste Deschallions de St.
Ours, an able soldier, was installed as commandant. At this time,
through Alphonse Tonty's greed and rapacity, the post was in a bad con-
dition. The settlers had been reduced to twenty- eight or thirty and
wheat was twenty-two livres per minot. Agriculture had been dis-
couraged and the settlers did not care to cultivate the land, preferring
to go into trade with its greater profits.
St. Ours was followed in a few months by Charles Joseph de Noyelle,
1 33
who, in the fall of 1728, was succeeded by De Boishebert, who was
commandant at Detroit from 1728 until the summer of 1734 — a period
six )^ears
In 1730 the affairs of the settlement had become burdensome to the
commandant and it became necessary to have a civil officer who would
collect the crown dues and attend to the legal duties of the post. Robert
Navarre, a native of Villeroy, Britanny, came out from France that
year and was made intendant of Detroit. He was a young man who
had just attained his majority, and was one of the very few sprigs of
nobility who settled in the West. Most of those who assumed noble
titles could not claim a noble lineage, but Robert Navarre was only re-
moved by eight generations from the throne of France. His royal an-
cestor was Henry of Navarre, afterward Henry IV of France, who had
a natural son known as Jean Navarre. The latter was an older half-
brother of Louis XIII, who succeeded to the throne. Robert Navarre
left a record in Detroit which was worthy of his ancestry. Remarried
Mary Lootman dit Barrois, in 1734, and reared a large family. He re-
mained in his position of trust during the thirty years of French rule
which followed, and when the English took possession, M. Navarre
was retained in the capacity of justice, magistrate and notary for some
time. In the official reports of the English commandants he is praised
as being a most honorable and capable man, worthy of the highest confi-
dence. The Navarres became numerous in the course of time, and when
the war of 1812 came, it is a matter of record that thirty-six Navarres
served with Winchester under command of Col. Francois Navarre.
Their descendants in Detroit and Michigan are still numerous. Some are
to be found in the most aristocratic circles and others among the lowly.
Sieur de Boishebert was an active official. He was sent by Governor
de Callieres to Mackinac to confer with the savages. In 1705 he helped
to capture, off Boston, three British ships laden with powder. From
1707 to 1710 he was detached as commissary at Acadia, and was after-
ward assistant engineer on the fortification of Quebec. In 1713 he offi-
cially explored the coast of Labrador, and was eighteen years adjutant
at Quebec. He was quite popular while commandant of Detroit, and
after his death in 1736 his widow petitioned for a pension to support
her three daughters and one son. But she did not get it. The thrifty
authorities in France found that she had a fair income from an es-
tate in that country, which had been inherited by her children, and so
she had to do without a pension.
134
Governor Beauharnois, whoruled New France from 17'26 to 1757, tried
to have two vessels placed on Lake Erie in order to establish a better
communication between the French posts on the lakes, but he was un-
successful. At his suggestion, maps of the lake system were forwarded
to Count Maurepas, then minister of marine in France, but the funds
of the empire were not bestowed and the vessels were not built. Beau-
harnois also advised the encouragementof settlers at Detroit. It would
seem that the public mill which was installed by Cadillac must have
gone wrong, for under Boishebert a grant was issued to Charles Cam-
pau, permitting him to erect a water mill on a stream which flowed
into the Detroit River from the west along the little ravine now occu-
pied by the Michigan Central depot tracks about Tenth street, and
which was called Cabacier's Creek in later years. This mill was au-
thorized about the year 1734.
Judging from the records it would appear that the commandants were
soon deprived of the revenue which Cadillac and some of his successors
derived from ground rents and trading licenses, and the proceeds were
turned over to the crown. Possibly the grasping methods of Alphonse
Tonty caused the change. When Count Maurepas became minister of
marine, he endeavored with the co operation of Beauharnois, and his
successors, La Jonquiere and De laGallissoniere, to build up the French
settlements and encourage farming.
Then the greatest rascal of the French regime was appointed com-
mandant on June 10, 1734. Hughes Pean de Livandiere was a bold
but clumsy rogue. He acted in conjunction with Intendant Begon,
who was his friend, and this connection no doubt made him reckless.
In the archives of France is a report of a trial in which Pean and Begon
were defendants; they were charged with malfeasance in office, and
Pean was fined 120,000 livres. The actions of Pean during the five
months of his term must have been extremely flagrant and rapacious
to cause the infliction of such heavy punishment. When Pean had been
ejected from office in November, 1734, Sabrevois was sent back to De-
troit and this time he remained in command four years.
In 1735, while Sabrevois was serving his second term, the Fox In-
dians, who had united with the Sakis or Sacs, as they were called by
the English, began to make trouble again. They had retired from
Wisconsin and established their villages on the west bank of the Mis-
sissippi, in the region now known as the State of Iowa. Their pres-
ence made it dangerous for the French traders who did business in the
135
Illinois country, and they frequently fell upon parties of Indians from
Detroit as they were going to make war upon the Flatheads. Lieu-
tenants de Noyelle and St. Ours, both ex-commandants, organized an ex-
pedition against these tribes, and they set out in March, 1735, with a
company of twenty Frenchmen and several hundred Ottawas and
Hurons. Ice was running in the Mississippi and the party had much
difficulty in crossing. They found that the enemy had taken a strong
position on the further bank of a swift tributary stream. The Ottawas
were eager to plunge into the river and swim it in spite of the cold, but
De Noyelle and St. Ours saw that such a course would be fatal, as
their arms and ammunition would become wet and useless and they
would then be at the mercy of the Foxes. The Indians derisively
said that the Frenchmen were no better than squaws, because of their
hesitation, and to satisfy the savages an attack was made by a party
which was sent farther up the stream. This party did not succeed in
surprising the enemy, and came near being exterminated as soon as
they had crossed, as a superior force attacked them and drove them to
the bank of the stream. The French came to their assistance, and
after two days of hard fighting the Foxes retired and sent a messenger
to ask for peace. A treaty was finally accomplished with mutual satis-
faction and the expedition returned to Detroit after suffering many
hardships.
In 1735 the demand for beaver furs had revived to such magnitude
that 178,000 pounds of them had been received at Quebec for shipment
to France. Just what caused the lack of demand in 1701 is not known,
but it was probably some change in the fashion of head wear in France
at that time that dispensed with beaver as the leading material.
In 1735 Governor Beauharnois and Intendant Hocquart were most
emphatic in asking Count Maurepas, who had succeeded Pontchartrain
as minister of marine, that a considerable force of troops be sent to
Detroit. They declared that the system of requiring the commandant
to keep up the post at his own expense, and reimbursing him by allow-
ing him a monopoly of the trading licenses, to be a sorry failure.
Commandants were anxious to make all possible profit out of the office,
and, as every soldier was a drain upon their pocketbooks, they kept
the number down to an inadequate force. They showed that it was
the soldiers who came to Detroit with Cadillac that had insured the
first success of the post as a permanent settlement, and insisted that
Detroit was a station which should be strongly defended. They urged
136
ALEXANDER LEWIS.
that it be made a central station, from which troops could be sup-
plied to the other posts of the West whenever it should become neces-
sary.
Again in 1737 they pleaded for the strengthening of Detroit. They
argued that the farming out of the revenues of the post tended to
make the commandant extortionate and that this discouraged the set-
tlers. Sieur de Noyelle, the commandant at that writing, maintained
but seventeen soldiers at Detroit. In place of the established system,
Beauharnois and the intendant advised that the office of commandant
be made permanent, and recommended that instead of allowing that
officer the control of the trading, that he be placed on a salary. The
expense to the king was estimated at $1,200. The proceeds of the
trading permits averged ^1,330 a year, which included $100 paid by
the two armorers and $30 paid by private persons living within the in-
closure of the fort.
CHAPTER XVII.
A Feud Commenced Between the Huron and Ottawa Tribes — The Hurons
Compelled to Flee to Sandusky — They Return to Settle at Bois Blanc Island and
Later at Sandwich— 1735-1746.
A quarrel between the Hurons and the Ottawas took place at Detroit
in the spring of 1738, which gave the commandant and the governor
much trouble for five years thereafter. A council was being held in
the house of Commandant de Noyelle. The Hurons and Ottawas
were present, as were also the Potawatomies and the Sauteurs, the lat-
ter being a tribe from the Au Sable River, north of Saginaw Bay.
During this council the head chief of the Hurons arose and presented a
belt to the head chief of the Ottawas, thus acknowledging his seniority.
"The Hurons have made peace with the Flatheads of the west,"
said he. ' ' We are now brothers, and we invite you to regard them in
the same way. We would be glad to have peace in the land. How-
ever, if you continue to send war parties against the Flatheads, some
of our young men may go to warn them of their danger."
The chief of the Ottawas replied in dudgeon : " Who art thou, Huron,
to lay down the law to me ? What is thy design? I think thou de-
137
sirest to do evil and then to take refuge with the Flatheads. It was in
thy power to make peace with them, but as for me, I do not accept
thy belt; I hand it over to our father who represents the person of
Onontio here. If Onontio tells us that it is his will, then we shall
hearken to his word. Thou shouldst know that when peace was made
that our father gave this tribe to all the others to devour. Our blood
has been shed along their path ; our bones are in their huts, and our
scalps hang above them. The frames on which they burned us and
the stakes still stand. If the Flatheads desired peace, they should
have spoken to us about it."
The Potawatomies and the Sauteurs sided with the Ottawas. The
latter made up a party of seventeen young warriors and sent them on a
foray against the Flatheads. The Ottawas met two parties of Hurons
while on the way. The Ottawas crept up unobserved upon a Flathead
village and killed and scalped a woman. As they were drawing nearer
with intent to surprise the camp the cry of a raven was heard and in-
stantly the Flatheads were on the alert. The raven cry had two mean-
ings among the Hurons. It meant: "We are hungry for meat," and
it also served as a warning against impending danger. It was not used
by the Flatheads, although they appeared to understand it in this case.
A moment later the attacking Ottawas found themselves between the
Flatheads on one side and the Hurons on the other, and both were
firing upon them. Nine of the Ottawas were shot and scalped, and
five more were taken prisoners The remaining three broke through the
line of the Hurons and killed one of the party, whom they recognized.
When the three survivors came within hail of their village at Detroit
they gave the cry of mourning instead of the scalp yell which would
have announced a victory. They came into the village to tell how the
Hurons had treacherously betrayed them, and the whole tribe was in a
furious rage against the Hurons. The Hurons then at Detroit denied
that any of their warriors had betrayed the Ottawas or had killed any
of them in the fight. " We do not shed the blood of our brothers,"
they said.
"You are dogs," shouted the infuriated Ottawas, "You are capable
of shedding the blood of your father as well as your brothers."
"We have been to war with the Flatheads many a time but we never
heard the raven cry before," said one of the survivors. "I killed one
of your men, Orontega. When your warriors come home we shall see
if he is missing. Then you will see that I am speaking the truth."
138
This show of hostility alarmed the Hurons, who retired to their fort,
and their women and children dared not go out to cultivate their crop
of corn. The Ottawas taunted them with being cowards, and told them
they need not be afraid, as the Ottawas did not kill their friends by
stealth, and would not harm them until notice had been given of a war.
The French commandant, De Noyelle, who had been recalled in the
fall of 1738, sent a herald through the settlement, who beat a pan and
warned all inhabitants not to sell powder and ball to the Indians while
they were in their present excitement. It was a very awkward compli-
cation, as the Hurons were allied to but five tribes in Canada and Ohio,
while the Ottawas were related to all the Indians in the upper country.
The Ottawas asked the Potawatomies and* Sauteurs to take up the
hatchet with them against the Hurons. De Noyelle attempted to ap-
pease them. The Hurons asked Governor Beauharnois to make a new
home for them at Montreal, or in some other place where they would
be safe from attacks by the Ottawas and their allies. That winter the
Hurons dared not winter in their village at Detroit, but took to the
woods at some place in the interior of the State, leaving part of their
corn crop unharvested. The English and the Iroquois invited them to
come to New York and receive their protection, and Beauharnois, the
French governor, sent his nephew. Chevalier Beauharnois, to invite
them to Montreal.
A secret influence, however, was at work which defeated both prop-
ositions. Father Richardie, Jesuit missionary to the Hurons at Sand-
wich, across the river from Detroit, wrote to the governor in January,
1739, that the Hurons were not reassured, and never would feel safe
again while they were in proximity to the Ottawas. He feared that at
the first alarm they would either fi}' to a refuge among the Sonontouans
(Senecas), or to the valley of the Ohio in Kentucky. It was impossible
for the Hurons to live in constant terror of their enemies, as their
women could not plant corn and do their usual work in the fields about
Detroit. A majority of the Detroit tribe then went to Sandusky, in the
territory of the Wyandottes, . who were their kindred. While there
Governor Beauharnois offered them an asylum at Montreal, promising
them a grant of land either at Lorette, the Falls of Montmorency, both
near Quebec, or at the Lake of Two Mountains, near and north of
Montreal; but the Hurons did not go, because Father Richardie want-
ed to keep them with him. The latter wrote several times that the In-
dians did not want to go to Lower Canada, but would prefer to remain
139
in some place of security near the Detroit mission. He advised that
they be placed on Grosse Lie. This Beauharnois said would never do,
as their isolation from the whites would make them too independent,
and they would be subject to attacks from their enemies just as if they
remained at Detroit. The preservation of peace, he said, demanded
that they be sent to Montreal, for so long as there was insecurity for
them at Detroit, there was danger of their going to the Flatheads.
Beauharnois sent his nephew to Detroit as a special envoy to the
Hurons in June, 1741, with the following address:
" Listen to the words of Onontio, Hurons. They are borne to you by one of ray
blood to show how much I have your welfare at heart. You say you will always
live in fear at Detroit. Sastaratsy, your king, sent word to his brother at Lorette,
the falls, and at the Lake of Two Mountains, that you would be forced to come to
them in the autumn. He said you would always be accused of taking part in every
attack of the Flatheads upon the tribes at the post, and that you wished to come
to Montreal. He sent word through M. Noj^elle asking for a grant of lands, and for
an escort to conduct you safely. I immediately sent you a message to take you
away from your fire, and to build another for you in this place, where you will be
safe. Come ; I stretch out my arms to you to place you under my wing. I send a
delegation of your brothers from the falls of St. Louis and the Lake of Two Moun-
tains to escort you in safety."
Young Beauharnois was instructed to be patient, and if the Hurons
hesitated to leave their harvest, he was to winter with them, and
Agent Du Buroy would persuade the Iroquois not to leave them unpro-
tected. As soon as Beauharnois arrived at Detroit every Huron who
had remained in the vicinity disappeared. Beauharnois, when the
Hurons would not come to him, went to the Hurons at Sandusky, but
the best he could do after a long labor with the tribe was to induce
three old men to accompany him back to Montreal, ostensibly for the
purpose of arranging with the governor for the transfer, although ar-
rangements were already made, and a new mission house and huts
were being built for their accommodation at Lorette. The reluctance
of the Hurons to accompany him was better understood when a let-
ter from Father Richardie to Father Jaunay, who was at a mission on
the Owashtanong or Grand River, was intercepted by Beauharnois.
The letter was written in December, 1741, and the following is an
extract :
" Chevalier Beauharnois, after a stay of one month at Detroit, decided to go to
Sandusky, as he had not been able to get the Hurons to come here to listen to him,
or to the message from his uncle. I could not omit making the journey with him,
140
although I had reason to be sure ±hat I was not pleasing him in doing so. The suc-
cess of his mission will be limited to three old men, who were persuaded with great
difficulty to accompany him, and who will not say one word. It is easy to see that
the Chevalier wanted to take their mission away from us that it might fall to his
friend, M. .Piquet, who has already begun to have clearings made and huts built at the
Lake of Two Mountains to receive them. But happen what may, the Hurons would
never have any missionaries but us. The reverened father superior has sent me
word, acting in connection with the general, to settle them at the great island
[Grosse He] where they could have been better oflf than anywhere. I do not know
from what this change arises. I shall patiently await the word he may send me on
this matter."
Judging from the correspondence that passed between Father Rich-
ardie and St. Pe, the father superior, the order preferred to keep the
Hurons at Detroit or in that immediate vicinity, and used all means to
prevent their transfer to a new pastor in the person of Father Piquet at
Quebec. It is probable that the latter was a Recollect priest, and this
would account for their opposition. Beauharnois decided, so long as
he could not persuade the Hurons to come to Montreal, that the next
best thing to do would be to send them to make war against the Flat-
heads, in the hope of winning again the friendship of their near neigh-
bors, the Ottawas. With this purpose in view a party of forty warriors
was made up, but just as they were about to set out to the Mississippi
valley Father Richardie sent them a belt secretly and told them to re-
main at peace with the Flatheads, upon which the party scattered.
In 1741, while the trouble was yet unsettled. Commandant Noyelle
was succeeded by Pierre Poyan de Noyan, and one of the first acts of
the latter was to take formal possession of Grosse He in the name of
the French. Governor Beauharnois would not permit the Hurons to
be settled on Grosse He, so Bois Blanc Island, at the mouth of the
river was proposed, but the governor insisted that they be kept on the
mainland. Father Richardie wrote coinciding with his views when
they were peremptorily expressed. He said:
" I have secured consent of my people, the Hurons to settle on the mainland, and
it is not advisable that they should settle on the Great Island, which would be a place
of refuge where they would have been able to lay down the law."
Young Beauharnois sent his uncle some of the priest's letters which
he had intercepted, and spoke very bitterly of the duplicity which had
defeated his purpose in coming to Detroit. " The Hurons " said he,
"wanted to settle on Bois Blanc Island, failing to get Grosse He.
Father Richardie makes them play all these tricks: you can divine the
reason."
141
Pierre de Celeron de Blainville succeeded Noyan, and retired in 1743,
having- failed to effect a settlement of the Indian troubles. He was
followed b\^ Joseph Lemoyne de Longueuil,
The Ottawa- Huron trouble was finally ended by the removal of the
Hurons, or the largest part of them, to Bois Blanc Island, and they re-
mained there until 1747. After the troubles of that year, as related
elsewhere, they came to Sandwich and lived around the mission house,
opposite their old fort across the river. At this time there was still
a small village of Hurons near what is now Trenton, and another
small village at Sandusky.
During the war between France and England the Hurons fought on
the side of the French. When the war was decided by the final capit-
ulation of Montreal, they ceased hostilities pending the treaty of
peace in 1763. Although Sir William Johnson was well received by
the Hurons at Sandwich, when he visited Detroit in 1761, he did not
secure their adhesion. It was only after the Anglo French treaty of
1763 that they concluded a peace with the English at Niagara, on July
18, 1764.
After the death of Father Potier at the Jesuit mission at Sandwich,
in 1781, the Hurons still lived around the mission. In 1791 they ceded
all their lands in Western Canada to the British government, with the
exception of two reservations, one being immediately west of and ad-
joining the Huron mission church line, of about one hundred acres;
and the other being what is now the whole township of Anderdon, on
the Detroit River, just above Amherstburg, fronting seven miles on
the river and running back the same distance.
The Hurons served on the British side in the war of 1812, and in
1819 consisted of about ninety persons, old and young. In this year
the principal property owners of Amherstburg, including Richard Pol-
lard, Sheriff William Hands, Matthew Elliott, J. B. Baby, John Gentle,
George Benson Hall, F. Baby, Angus Mcintosh, John B. Askin, and
others, petitioned Sir Peregrine Maitland, lieutenant - governor of
Upper Canada, that the Hurons be removed, on the ground that their
occupation was inimical to the improvement of the town and the safety
of His Majesty's fort (Maiden). The petitioners, however, desired
that the Hurons be liberally dealt with in land and annuities. The
petition was not granted.
In 1836 the Hurons on the Canada side of the Detroit River were all
livingon their reservation at Anderdon, and in that year they surrendered
142
two-thirds of the land to the British government, to be sold for their
benefit. They retained the central third, lying on the Detroit River,
which they reserved for their own use. In 1876 they apportioned the land
among themselves, giving to each male one hundred acres and to each
female fifty acres, and sold the residue. This apportionment ended their
tribal relation with the government, and they ceased to be Indians in
a legal sense. In Anderdon at the time of the disbandment there was
but one king or head chief, whose Indian name was Mondoron, and whose
English name was Joseph White. He stayed in Anderdon and lived
on his lands, and died in Windsor in 1886. He left six children — four
sons and two daughters— who are all living. His sons are Solomon
White, ex-M. P. P. for Essex county; Thomas B. White, merchant,
Anderdon; Alex. White and Joseph White, capitalists, Windsor. The
daughters are Mrs. Christine Raymon and Mrs. Eva M. Scully, of
Windsor. These children inherited his patrimonial acres and money.
Up to 1843 the few Hurons who had lived near Trenton, in Wayne
county, on the American side of the Detroit River, and those near San-
dusky, O., still kept up their tribal relations. In that year both bands
agreed to terminate their tribal relations, and they sold their reserva-
tions and went to Wyandotte, Kansas, where they bought a large tract
of land. Here, however, they found it necessary to resume the tribal
ties and customs, but in 1866 they sold the lands, divided the money,
and ceased to be classed as Indians.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Recreations and Occupations of the Early Settlers — Races between the Fleet
French Ponies on the Ice — Attempt to Extend the French Domain in Ohio and
Pennsylvania— 1750-1760.
" The recreations of the French colonists," says Lanman, " consisted
in attending the rude chapels on the borders of the wilderness, and in
adorning their altars with wild flowers; in dancing to the sound of the
violin at each other's houses, inhunting the deer and other game through
the Oakland openings and in paddling their light canoes across the clear
and silent streams." To this list might be added horse racing, after
the speedy and hardy French pony was introduced into the settlement
143
about 1740. In winter the equine contests were continued on the ice,
and in Detroit the race course for this diversion for the past 150 years
was that part of the Rouge River between the river road and the Detroit
River, some three miles from the present city hall The Indians were
expert players at foot ball and lacrosse, and in many of these games
the whites participated. Both under French and English rule, many
citizens indulged in bowling with cannon balls in the narrow streets
within the stockade, but this amusement ceased with the great fire of
1805.
The women, outside of ordinary domestic avocations, occupied them-
selves in making coarse cotton cloths for the Indian trade, and in later
years in braiding straw for male and female headwear. Their com-
fortable log houses, covered with clapboards, fronted on the roadway
that ran close to the banks of the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers, and were
generally one and a half stories in height, the upper story being chiefly
within the roof. Dormer windows on the front and sides gave light
and air to this story. As a rule the house was whitewashed or colored
white, and the front door was painted green and divided horizontally
in the center; the upper part was kept open in fair weather, and the
lower part closed to keep the children from straying out on the road
and prevent vagrant animals from entering the house. Inside, the
puncheon floors were uncarpeted, but kept very clean, and the walls
were hung with rude pictures of the saints, the Madonna and her child,
and the crucifix of lead.
In front of the house, across the roadway, was a tiny wharf, consist-
ing of one or more planks supported by sticks driven into the river
bed, and on this the inmates walked out to fill their pails with water.
Tied to the. wharf was the canoe, which was almost the only method of
communication through the western wilds during the French regime,
and was indispensable in fishing and trapping.
The farms were long and narrow, and stretched back into the forest
two and three miles, but were rarely cultivated for more than half a
mile. The farm houses being all located on the banks of the streain, on
a common roadway, the settlers were not at all isolated from each other,
and intelligence of interesting or important events could be communi-
cated for a distance of many miles, by calling aloud from house to
house, each recipient of the news repeating it to his neighbor. Food
was easily acquired, and abundance of game strayed in the woods and
sometimes into the very backyards, and the waters were alive with fish.
144
EUWIN F. CONELY.
Agriculture was never skillfully conducted by the French settlers or
their Indian neighbors, and their implements were rude and cumbrous.
The plow was of wood, except the iron share, and with its long beam
and handles, was ten or twelve feet long. The mouldboard was also
of wood. In front were two wooden wheels of different sizes, the
smaller one to run on the unplowed side and the larger one in the fur-
row. The simple harness was of ropes or withes of twisted rawhide.
When oxen were used, the ropes were passed around the oxen's horns
and they pulled with their heads, and the plow followed and broke the
ground. This description of the homes and agricultural operations is
taken mostly from Bela Hubbard's "Memorials of Half a Century, "
published in 1888, which is a valuable contribution to the history of
Detroit and Michigan. In this work an error occurs relative to the dis-
position of manure by the old French settlers. Hubbard says: "The
fields were never manured, and the farmers, when their manure heaps
had accumulated to an inconvenient degree about their barns, adopted
the most ready means of relief by carting the incumbrance on to the
ice in winter. The offensive material was thus washed away without
further trouble when the ice broke up in the spring."
This statement was first made by Lewis Cass, who may have repeat-
ed the statement of some writer, or may have inferred that the manure
was thus sought to be gotten rid of by seeing quantities of it on the
ice in front of the farm houses. But it is impossible to believe that
French farmers, whether born in old France or in the American col-
onies, should be so grossly ignorant of the virtue and benefits of ma-
nure. The true reason was because the horses, cattle, etc., were
watered in the winter through holes in the ice, and the manure was
spread on the ice, from the shore to the hole, to keep them from slip-
ping and falling down.
In 1746 Mackinac (Turtle), a powerful Chippewa chief, aided by sev-
eral northern tribes, including the Ottawas of that region, made a de-
scent on Detroit. The French showed a firm front and were aided by
Pontiac, then a young chief of the Detroit Ottawas, who thus fought
against his own nation and kindred. The Turtle and his forces were
driven away.
In 1747 a formidable conspiracy was formed by the Indians at De-
troit against the French. The Iroquois sent belts to the tribes here,
and a plot was made to murder the garrison. It is said that the at-
tack was really incited by the English, which was probably true, as
145
many other schemes of a like purpose were directly traceable to them.
The massacre was to take place on the night of a church holiday,
when the Indians would have admittance to the fort, and as many as
possible were to sleep inside the palisades. Rising- at a certain time
in the night, each savage was expected to kill everybody in the house
where he was staying. In this plot the Hurons were to be the chief
actors. A day or two before the time of action an Indian woman had
occasion to go to an upper floor in one of the buildings, and hearing
voices below, stopped and listened. She heard the whole plan ar-
ranged, and, as soon as she could leave safely, went to the house of
Father Richardie, where she informed a lay brother of the plot.' The
news soon reached De Longueuil, the commandant, who immediately
called the Huron and other chiefs together, upbraided them bitterly
for their intended treachery, denounced them as ingrates, and threat-
ened punishment. As the commandant could withhold their winter
supplies, the chiefs expressed great contrition and abandoned the plot.
While the conspiracy was maturing little or no attention was paid to
agriculture, and, when it was exposed, the provisions of the past year
were about exhausted. Almost a famine ensued in 1747, and Com-
mandant Longueuil sent to Montreal for supplies. A convoy of boats
laden with provisions was sent to Detroit, and 150 persons, soldiers,
merchants and servants, accompanied the expedition. The Hurons
abandoned Bois Blanc Island and removed to Sandwich, and built them
bark cabins in close proximity to the old mission house.
From an old report, without signature or date, but which was evidently
made several years before 1747, the numbers of the Indian tribes lo-
cated at or near Detroit, and connected with the French government
of Canada, are given as follows ;
" There were no tribes settled on the coast of Lake Erie. At Detroit
(the Straits), between Lakes Erie and Huron, the Pottawatomies have
a village with 180 warriors. The Hurons are stated to be reduced to
one village near the fort of Detroit, with the exception of the village
at Quebec, and have 180 warriors. The Ottawa village on the south
side of the straits, contains 200 warriors. The Mississaquas, with 60
warriors, occupied a small village at the entrance of Lake Huron [just
above the present site of Port Huron, Mich.]. At the end of Lake
Huron, at the village of Saguinan, near Mackinac, was another village
of Ottawas with 80 warriors. "
Under the rule of De Longueuil the importance of the outlying posts
146
was recognized more and more by the French g-overnment, and Gover-
nor Beauharnois was authorized to be more liberal in strengthening
them. In 1748 the fort at Detroit was enlarged and improved, as were
the other posts in the North, Northwest and South. Between 1748 and
1760, when the French gave way to the British, Fort Pontchartrain was
enlarged and strengthened five times. This was owing partly to the
increase of population, and partly to additions of military force, but
mainly to the well-founded belief that Detroit was the most important
strategic position in the West, and should be held at all hazards.
De Longueuil gave satisfaction as commandant at Detroit during the
governorship of Beauharnois. When the latter was superseded by the
Marquis de Gallissoniere, Longueuil was retained for two years after-
ward. In 1749 the aged vSabrevois was sent to Detroit for a third
term.
During this period the French and English were bent on acquiring
all territory in North America within their reach, and the whole time
was spent in land grabs of greater or less magnitude. Both coveted
the fertile lands of Ohio and Pennsylvania, and each made efforts to
secure them. The French started a small settlement at French Creek,
south of Lake Erie. The British offset this by an organization called
the Ohio Company, which was granted 500,000 acres of the disputed
territory. The conditions of the grant were that the company should
build a fort and settle one hundred families on the tract. This was in
1748.
At this time everything tended to show that the French power in
America was declining, but the Marquis de Gallissoniere would not
acknowledge it, even to himself, although he was a man of ability. In
1749 he organized in Detroit and Montreal an expedition to renew the
claims of France to a large portion of Pennsylvania and Ohio, and
placed in charge of it Celeron de Bienville, a chevalier of the order of
St. Louis. The detachment consisted of eight subaltern officers, six
cadets, an armorer, twenty soldiers, 180 Canadians, twenty Abinakis,
and thirty Iroquois. A priest, named Father Bonnecamp, who was a
scientist, mathematician and map-maker, accompanied the expedition.
The party left Montreal in bateaux and traineaux and passed through
Lake Ontario; thence across Lake Erie. By another portage they
reached Chautauqua Lake and thence by Conewango Creek, they
reached the Alleghany River and proceeded to the headwaters of the
Ohio. About a dozen lead plates were buried and affixed to trees at
147
different points, each bearing an inscription showing that the lands
were owned by the king of France, by virtue of arms and treaties.
But the whole expedition was a characteristic piece of Gallic vain-
glory. Not a foot of the land was either guarded or defended, and it
all fell into the hands of the British in good time. In after years
some of the plates were found and hung up in farm houses as monu-
ments of French folly. One was melted and cast into bullets by a
party of boys. After the plates were buried the members of the ex-
pedition returned to Detroit and Montreal.
CHAPTER XIX.
Feeble Attempts to Strengthen the French Outposts — The Determination of Great
Britain to Seize the French Strongholds Becomes Apparent — 1755-1760.
In 1749 several hundred immigrants were sent to Detroit by the
French government. They were mostly composed of farmers and
were provided with the necessary supplies of pioneers in an interior
settlement. These included canvass for tents, hoes, axes, sickels, guns,
powder, and meat, with stipulations that these supplies should be paid
for when a certain area of land had been cleared.
Sabrevois was too old and feeeble to be effective as commandant,
and in 1751 Pierre de Celeron was given another term, lasting until the
summer of 1754.
These years had been troubled by almost constant war between the
French and the British along the eastern border, but Detroit had not
been threatened with any serious invasion. During the term of Jacques
d'Anon, Sieur de Muy, which began in 1754 and closed in 1758, Detroit
was greatly strengthened as a military post and supplies of provisions,
arms and ammunition were laid in. Detroit was the emporium for
supplying the posts of Presque Isle, Niagara, Le Boeuf, Venango and
Du Quesne, which were on a line from the foot of Lake Erie to the
headwaters of the Ohio, and when any of these posts were threatened
with an attack, Detroit sent soldiers and Indians to reinforce them
with all possible speed. In 1758 Francis Marie Picote de Bellestre,
the last commandant of the French regime, came to Detroit, and upon
148
him was cast the unpleasant task of surrendering- the last important
French post to the victorious English. The entire ag-gregation of gov-
ernors from first to last, was made up of a class of men who were more
anxious for their personal advancement than for the development of
the country or the upbuilding of a French empire in the new world.
Cadillac was perhaps the most promising man of the lot, for with all
his faults he had an unbounded energy which would have built up a
city about his fort in spite of the opposition of his enemies, had he not
been removed by a disastrous promotion.
During the seven years' strife between England and France for the
possession of the northern part of the country, the settlers were
ground as between two millstones. In the Massachusetts colony and in
New York the troubles were termed the French and Indian wars, be-
cause the Algonquin tribes and the New England tribes were instigat-
ed to attack the English colonists, and were supplied with arms and
ammunition by the French. In Michigan the French settlers were the
sufferers, as the British authorities furnished the Iroquois nation with
arms and ammunition, and offered them inducements to attack the
French. The first of these savage wars occurred in 1689 and was
known as " King William's" war, because it occurred under the reign
of William and Mar5^ The second occurred in 1702, and was known
as "Queen Anne's" war. The third, in 1744, was named "King
George's " war, and the last and worst was the "Old French and In-
dian " war, which lasted from 1755 to 1763. In the intervals between
these open wars there was always more or less trouble, each part}'
making bloody forays when the mood took them. The bulk of the
fighting took place east of Lake Erie, but the influence of these hos-
tilities reached as far westv/ard as the white man had penetrated.
During these dreadful years the settler carried his musket wherever he
went, and was in constant expectation of an attack. Fields could not
be cultivated except in close proximity to the blockhouses, as the
farmers were in danger of being shot down and scalped. On Sunday
when the congregation gathered for worship, the men sat at the en-
trance to the church aisles with loaded muskets quite as convenient to
their hands as bibles or prayer books, and they ready to rush out and
battle for their lives at any moment. Hertel de Rouville of Montreal
descended upon Deerfield, Mass., in February, 1704, killed part of the
settlers in a night attack and marched one hundred prisoners away
toward Canada. It was bitter weather, and when captives succumbed
149
to the cold they were killed and scalped. The remnant were sold as
slaves to the Fi-ench farmers in Canada. Matters grew worse instead
of better, and it became necessary for the nations to engage more
seriously and fight it out to a finish.
The Massachusetts colonists planned to capture the French strong-
holds on the Atlantic coast and cut off their communication with
France. On the Island of Cape Breton, just north of Nova Scotia, was
a fortress of great strength, commanding the entrance to the Gulf of
St. Lawrence. It was called Louisburg, in honor of the king, and was
the Gibraltar of the new world. An expedition of four hundred
fishermen and farmers was made up in New England, leaving the
women to plant and harvest the crops. Setting out from Marblehead,
Mass., in the spring of 1745, under command of Gen. William Pepper-
ell, they laid siege to Louisburg. By the treaty of Utrecht, made in
1713, Nova Scotia had been ceded to the British, and Cape Breton was
the nearest French possession. To give an idea of the fortress it may
be said that the town, two and one half miles in circumference, was
surrounded by a wall thirty to thirty-six feet high and by a deep moat
eighty feet wide. It lay at the back of a landlocked bay and was de-
fended by sixty-five siege guns and sixteen mortars. The harbor en-
trance was but half a mile wide and this was defended by a battery of
thirty cannon on each side. The attacking party was made up of
farmers and fishermen, who had embarked in one hundred small
smacks, and were supported by a squadron of British ships under Com-
modore Warren in order to prevent their wholesale capture by some
French warship. These undisciplined farmers charged the harbor
batteries and captured them, and in fifty-five days compelled the sur-
render of the place. The attempt of the French to relieve the be-
leaguered cit)^ failed, and a ship load of food and munitions of war was
captured by the British squadron. Duchambon, the French com-
mandant, then struck his flag. After this brilliant achievement the
fort was restored to France three years later by the treaty of Aix la
Chapelle. In 1757 it was again captured by General Amherst and
General Wolfe, when the place was utterly destroyed and the in-
habitants were transported to France in British ships.
In the hope of securing some abatement of the French claims to ter-
ritory in the west, the governor of New York and the governor of Vir-
ginia counseled together and finally selected a young surveyor to
present a remonstrance to the French commandant at Fort Du Quesne
150
(Pittsburg). This was a rude settlement at the junction of the Alle-
ghany and Monongahela Rivers, forming the headwaters of the Ohio.
Virginia settlers had obtained some land patents extending into the
valley of the Ohio, but the French and Indians refused to allow them
even a survey. The young surveyor who went to lay the case before
Commandant Legardeur de St. Pierre de Repentigny was George Wash-
ington. He found Repentigny at Fort Le Boeuf farther up the Alle-
ghany River, and was courteously treated, but was not allowed to sur-
vey. An attempt to erect a stockade on the Monongahela was made
by the British in February, 1754, six months after Washington's visit,
but Captain Contrecoeur attacked them with a superior force and drove
them out of the region. Fort Du Quesne was then made a place of
considerable strength, and when it was finished the French had sixty
strongholds, mostly blockhouses, between Quebec and the Gulf of
Mexico.
The next step in the wars was the forcible removal by the English
of the Acadians who had settled in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in
1754. Those who refused to swear allegiance to the English crown,
7,000 in number, were scattered all over the country, and their farms
were laid waste. This event gave the foundation for Longfellow's
poem, Evangeline. In the following year General Braddock set out
from Virginia with the greatest army of British troops which ever
crossed the Alleghanies, to capture Fort Du Quesne. The story of his
disastrous defeat on July 9, 1755, and the rescue of the remnant of his
force by Washington, who was then but twenty three years of age, is
familiar to all the world. Three years later Washington accompanied
an expedition under General Forbes, to Fort Du Quesne and compelled
the French to abandon it.
At this period, 1756, a new commander appeared at Montreal who
was so active and successful that he threatened to drive the British out
of New York. Louis Joseph de St. Verain Montcalm, then forty-four
years old, had won the rank of colonel in the battle of Piacenza, in the
war for the Austrian succession. He was regarded as an able com-
mander, so able that his government expected him to win with undis-
ciplined Canadian farmers, aided by the Indians. He arrived at Quebec
in May, 1756, and captured Fort Ontario at Oswego, August 14. Next
year he captured Fort William Henry at the head of Lake George,
which was held by a garrison of 2,500 men and defended by forty-two
cannon. The half-famished Frenchmen and Indians, who had lived by
151
the chase during the siege, were very glad to get the provisions in the
stores. Montcalm then fortified Fort Carillon, or Ticonderoga, in the
passage between Lake Champlain and Lake George. Next year Gen-
eral Abercrombie marched against him with an army of 15,000 men,
and tried to take the fort by assault. Montcalm had but 3,600 men,
but after four hours of fierce fighting, the British fled in disorder. In-
stead of supplying this brilliant commander with a reasonable force of
men, and enabling him to go on with his campaign, the French gov-
ernment treated him with neglect. But a handful of men could be left
to defend the forts already taken, while Montcalm retired to make
ready at Quebec for a siege which was preparing against it.
Then the kaleidoscope of national politics took another turn which
completely altered the conditions between France and England. France
was hampered in her colonial advancement by Nicholas Fouquet, her
minister of finance. Instead of employing the national funds where
they were imperatively demanded, he applied them to the furtherance
of his own schemes, in the mean time spending 18,000,000 livres on his
private residence.
CHAPTER XX.
Rise of William Pitt in England — His Aggressive Territorial Policy Culminates
in a Border War — The French are Beaten at Every Point — Quebec, Montreal, De-
troit and Du Quesne Surrendered to the British— 1755-1760.
In England one of the greatest and most brilliant statesmen of her
history was waiting for recognition. William Pitt had successfully op-
posed the policy of Walpole, and gained so much popularity with the
people that George II hated him beyond endurance, and in order to get
him out of parliament made him joint vice-treasurer for Ireland and
paymaster in the army. Lord Pelham, the prime minister, wanted him
for secretary of state, but the king would not allow it. Subsequently
the cabinet appointed him to that office, but the king dismissed him.
Affairs in America and other quarters were going to the dogs and the
people compelled the king to accept Pitt as secretary of state in 1 757.
In a short time his talents made him virtually prime minister. From
that moment the fortunes of England changed. Pitt outlined a vigor-
152
HENRY CLAY HODGES.
ons policy for the prosecution of the war in America, resolving- to save
the colonies at all hazards and to drive the French out of the North.
He planned to send General Amherst to the capture of Ticonderoga
and Crown Point, and then Amherst was to proceed down Lake Cham-
plain to join General Wolfe at Quebec and lay siege to that stronghold.
General Prideaux was sent against the fort at Niagara, and after cap-
turing it he too was to join the Quebec expedition. Pitt knew that the
French garrisons were weak in numbers and poorly provisioned, but
he did not appreciate the difficulties involved in long marches through
the wilderness.
In July, 1759, General Prideaux arrived at Niagara, where he found
that the French garrison was about to be reinforced from the fort at
Presque Isle, now Erie; from Fort Venango, on Oil Creek, Pa., and
from Detroit. At the first attempt against the fort General Prideaux
was instantly killed by the bursting of a gun. Sir William Johnson,
who was to be a figure of some importance in the history of Detroit in
after years, succeeded to the command. The reinforcements were
routed before they could join the garrison, and Fort Niagara surren-
dered with six hundred men, the prisoners being sent to New York.
Sir William remained at the fort and did not attempt to join Wolfe.
General Amherst captured the two forts on Lake Champlain and then
went into winter quarters at Crown Point.
Gen. James Wolfe was a young man of thirty-two years, son of
Colonel Wolfe, who had fought under Marlborough. He had seen
service at Dettingen, Fontenoy and La Feldt, and his soldierly gifts
won Pitt's favor. Though inexperienced as a commander, he was
selected to head an expedition of 8,000 trained regulars, which sailed
from England February 17, 1759, and Generals Monckton, Townshend
and Murray were his brigade commanders. He arrived before Quebec
June 26, 1759, and while waiting for Amherst and Prideaux to join
him, made a careful reconnoissance of the citadel. He found it a place
of considerable strength, built at the extremity of a tongue of high land
which formed one bank of the river. The fort was a promontory,
rising 335 feet above the river. Its cannon commanded the lowlands
forming the natural approach, and the only apparent approach for
attack on the level was from far up the river. On the opposite shore
of the stream is a commanding position called Point Levis, and there
Wolfe planted batteries to cover assaults on the height. The space ad-
joining the fort was a plain of about fifty acres called the Heights of
153
20
Abraham. Monckton was placed in charge of the batteries at Point
Levis and a bombardment was begun, but the limited range and small
calibre of his cannon made the attempt useless. Discouraged with
waiting for reinforcements, Wolfe ordered an assault up the slope from
Lower Town by his grenadiers, but they were repulsed with consider-
able loss, and an attack from the lower level was found to be imprac-
ticable with the force at his command.
Wolfe was a nervous man, of delicate constitution, and the failure
threw him into a fever, but he would not abandon his duty. Counsel-
ing with his generals, he resolved to try a night attack by sending his
best regiment, Eraser's Highlanders, to scale the precipice of more
than three hundred feet in order to secure a footing on the level with
the French. Several bateaux loaded with men were sent up the river,
and Montcalm, suspecting the design of his enemy, sent Colonel de
Bougainville with 1,500 men to Point Rouge, nine miles up the river,
to repel an attack at what was supposed to be the nearest vulnerable
point. On the night of September 13 boats from the British fleet
brought a force of men under the precipice.
" Qui vive? " cried a sentinel from the heights above.
"France," answered a Scottish officer who could speak French.
" Quel regiment? "
" De la Reine," replied the officer.
The sentinel was satisfied and did not ask for the countersign, as a
French convoy of provisions was expected from above. In a few min-
utes the boats landed, and Wolfe and Fraser's Highlanders climbed up
the dark heights, clinging to the bushes and to crevices in the rocks.
The greatest precautions were observed to avoid giving an alarm, and the
guns and accoutrements were hauled up by cords after a number of
men had gained the summit. At daybreak the sentinels of the citadel
were astonished to find a strong force of British soldiers on the plateau
ready for battle. They were dirty and ragged from their long scram-
ble up the sides of the cliff, but they were grim and determined. All
was confusion in a moment. Fearing an immediate attack, and sus-
pecting that the whole British army was upon him, Montcalm hurried
out a skirmishing party to hold the enemy in check until his main body
could form for a charge. The skirmish line straggled toward the line
of Highlanders and began a scattered firing, which produced little ef-
fect. Then Montcalm mustered his scanty and ill-fed force for an as-
sault to repel the invaders. Where was de Bougainville now? The
154
clever fighter with his 1,500 musketeers would be worth an empire. A
dust cloud five miles away showed where they were hurriedly tramping
back to the citadel, having found that the movement of the British up
the river had been but a ruse. The column of French soldiers filed out
of the citadel and formed in line of battle, then marched toward the
line of red coats. In front on horseback came the bronzed figure,
Montcalm, the hero of many fights. He was taken at a disadvantage,
but his eagle eye sparkled with the light of battle, and his fierce mous-
tache bristled with impetuous rage. Opposed to him was a thin, red
line of men whose valor was unquestioned. They must hold their ground
or die in the attempt. Pale, slender and beardless stood the gallant
Wolfe, the ghastly pallor of his face relieved by the flush of the fever
which still racked his bones. He knew that he had been selected for
this important task by Pitt against the advice of other statesmen ; and
he was there to defend the honor of England and the judgment of his
friend and patron.
" Hold your fire, my boys, until I give the word. Don't waste a
single shot. Stand firm for Old England and the victory is ours."
The voice of the young commander went down the line, and at his
inspiring words every man nerved himself for the death struggle.
Montcalm realized that the first onset would decide the fortune of the
day, and his men were also directed to hold their fire. On came the
French at a jog trot, while the Highlanders stood silent and grim.
There was a nervous fingering of firelocks as the French came within
one hundred yards, and every eye was on the young general, eager for
the word. On came the French without faltering, and all the time the
muskets of the skirmishers were popping. A few of the red coats
went down and others stood in line with widening blotches of blood
staining their uniforms. Fifty yards separated the two lines and
a few more strides would bring them into collision. The sword of
Wolfe was raised high above his head as the word " Ready " came like
a trumpet note from his lips. Down flashed the gleaming sword; the
command "Fire" rang out; a double roll of musketry with its flashes
of fire and singing of bullets ran along both lines. The commands
had been obeyed by both bodies of troops and both were swept by
deadly volleys at the same instant.
Wolfe received three musket balls in his body, and sank with a mor-
tal wound that threw his weight upon the nearest Highlander's shoul-
der.
155
" Hold me up," he whispered, "don't let my brave boys see me fall
Forward! charge them, boys."
"They run! See how they run," cried a voice.
"Who run?" asked Wolfe.
"The enemy, sir, give way everywhere "
"Go one of you to Colonel Burton," directed the dying man; "tell
him to march Webb's regiment down to Charles River to cut off their
retreat by the bridge."
Then turning on his side he murmured: "Now God be praised, I
will die in peace;" and in a few minutes he drew his last breath.
Montcalm on horseback was driven by the rush of fugitives into the
town. As he approached the walls he was shot through the body.
When he was told that he would die he said: " So much the better; I
shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec."
The great stronghold of the St. Lawrence had fallen and thus Can-
ada and the Northwest virtually passed into the hands of the British on
September 13, 1759, although the capitulation of Montreal and the
formal surrender of all Canada did not take place until the following
year, when Montreal surrendered September 8, 1760.
This blow must have paralyzed the remnant of the French govern-
ment, for information was not forwarded to Detroit. Commandant
Bellestre was holding himself in readiness to obey commands or to
repel invaders when Major Robert Rogers appeared at the mouth of
Detroit River with a portion of the Royal American Regiment, made up
of British colonists and a portion of the Eightieth Regiment. Bellestre
was an able commander, and in consequence of the activity of the
British, who were pressing the French posts in the east, had succeeded
in massing a strong force at Fort Pontchartrain, and had accumulated a
quantity of military stores to be available for strengthening the sta-
tions farther east whenever they were menaced. The fall of Louis-
burg, Fort Frontenac, Niagara, Du Quesne and Quebec must have
been the occasion of much discussion at Detroit in those last days, but
still the commandant appeared to think his government was secure.
Major Rogers came from Niagara, part of his force coming in bateaux,
which also carried supplies for the fort, while the remainder marched
along the south shore of Lake Erie, driving a small herd of cattle with
them. They camped one night near the Cuyahoga River, when a
number of Indian chiefs entered their camp. The leader of the dele-
gation was Pontiac, the head of the Ottawa tribe. He was stern and
bold in demeanor.
156
"How is it you have come into my territory without invitation or
permission? Is your business peace or war?" he asked.
"I have come in the name of the great king of England to take
possession of Detroit," replied Rogers.
"This is my country; it does not belong to the great king; my peo-
ple control all the country of the lakes," replied Pontiac.
"We do not want your lands or your hunting grounds," said
Rogers, "We want to trade with you as we trade with the Iroquois
in the East. We give better trade for furs than the French. We have
conquered the French and I have the submission of their governor at
Quebec. When we have taken possession at Detroit, you will be glad
and all your people will come to trade with the English, who do not
cheat them as the French have done."
Pontiac stood eyeing the major keenly for a time. Then he said:
" I will stand in your path until morning and will protect you from
harm; at daylight you may proceed safely on your way."
The proud savage gathered his blanket about his shoulders and
stalked into the gloom of the November night. He made no servile
surrender, but had placed the invading force under his protection, as if
he had been commander of a superior army.
When the British soldiers were approaching Detroit, the Indian run-
ners brought in word that the French were to be turned away. Bel-
lestre drew a rude picture of a crow eating from the top of a man's
head, hung it at the gate of the fort, and told the Indians that he was
the crow and that he would presently pick out the brains of the Eng-
lish soldiers. The Indians doubted it and waited. Rogers sent to the
French commandant a report of the surrender, and made a formal
demand for the possession of the fort. At first Bellestre thought a
trick was being attempted, and he asked time to consider. It was
granted and indubitable evidence was furnished in the correspondence
that followed to show that French rule was at an end in the North, and
so the truth came at last to Picote de Bellestre, a brave soldier of ex-
cellent family, who had been made a knight of St. Louis for military
prowess. He called his garrison to an assembly and gave public
notice that New France had been turned over to the British crown.
With rolling drum and proper military salute, the standard of France
was hauled down from the staff where it had waved for fifty-nine
years, and the garrison marched out the gates of the fort. The
British marched in with flying colors and beating drums, and the royal
157
standard of Great Britain was flung to the breeze with rousing cheers.
The placard was thrown down and the Indians transferred their alle-
giance from the vanquished to the victors, and greeted the discomfited
commandant with yells of derision. A new regime was installed which
was believed to be perpetual, but thirty-six years later the British were
destined to march out as the French had done, leaving all the country
south and west of the great lakes to the possession of a nation which
was to rise from the soil of the new world.
The French waited until the war of the Revolution for their revenge.
At the time of the surrender of Detroit Count de Vergennes made a
prophecy which commanded little attention at the time. "This triumph
will be fatal to England " said he; " the colonies are now able to pro-
tect themselves without aid from the home government; their ability
to take care of themselves will make them headstrong; they will pres-
ently refuse to contribute toward the expenses of the home government,
and v/hen England attempts to coerce them they will surely strike for
their independence. " Sixteen years later his prophecy came to pass,
and when the war was wavering in the balance, and the case of the col-
onists appeared hopeless, France sent La Fayette, De Grasse and other
leaders, with ships and troops to help the colonists win their indepen-
dence.
By these brilliant and substantial victories over the French Great
Britain won the whole of Canada and the Northwest and the cession
was formally made by the treaty of Paris in 1763.
Commenting on this momentous event John Fiske says: " It maybe
said of the treaty of Paris that no other treaty ever transferred such an
immense portion of the earth's surface from one nation to another.
But such a statement, after all, gives no adequate idea of the enormous
results which the genesisof English liberty had for ages been preparing,
and which had now found definite expression in the policy of the English
prime minister, William Pitt. The 10th of February, 1763, might not
unfitly be celebrated as the proudest day in the history of England ; for
on that day it was made clear — had any one eyes to discern the future
and read between the lines of this portentous treaty — that she was
destined to become the revered mother of many free and enlightened
nations, all speaking the matchless language which the English Bible
has forever consecrated, and earnest in carrying out the sacred ideas for
which Latimer suffered and Hampden fought. It was proclaimed on
that day that the institutions of the Roman empire, however useful in
158
their time, were at last outgrown and superseded, and that the guidance
of the world was henceforth to be, not in the hands of imperial bureaus
or papal conclaves, but in the hands of honest labor and the preachers
of righteousness, unhampered by ritual or dogma. The independence
of the United States was the first great lesson which was drawn from
this solemn proclamation. Our own history to-day is the first extended
commentary which is gradually unfolding to men's minds the latest
significance of the compact by which the vanquished old regime of
France renounced its pretensions to guide the world."
But Detroit and Michigan had to pass through many trials and
bloody experiences before she reached the goal of human freedom. An
isolated trading post on the borders of civilization, her importance was
either forgotten or ignored amid the pressing concerns of other and
more important centers of civilization, and it was not until thirteen
years after the Revolution had been fought and won that she was
allowed to become an integral portion of the great American republic.
THE FRENCH COMMANDANTS.
During the fifty-nine years of the French regime in Detroit the post
at Fort Pontchartrain was presided over by eighteen different com-
mandants and the rule was divided into twenty-four terms. Cadillac
expected to be the permanent commandant when the post was estab-
lished, and he hoped to enjoy all the benefits of trading, rents and seig-
norial dues while he built up a populous colony about him. His hopes
were dashed, and then the office of commandant became a rotating po-
litical preferment with which the governors general could reward their
friends and favorites.
From 1701 to 1704 Antoine de La Mothe Cadillac ruled. While he
was absent and on trial for alleged malfeasance in office, his companion
and second in command, Alphonse de Tonty, was in charge from Sep-
tember until February, while Lieut. August de Bourgmont was making
his way from Montreal.
Bourgmont remained until Cadillac was sent back to settle the In-
dian trouble in 1706, and from that time the original commandant re-
mained at the post until 1711, although he was relieved of command in
the fall of 1710 by Joseph Guyon Dubuisson, who brought his appoint-
ment as governor of Louisiana.
Dubuisson remained in charge from the fall of 1710 until the fall of
1712, when the regularly appointed successor of Cadillac, Francis
159
Dauphine de la Forest had recovered from an illness and was able to
take command in person.
Two years later La Forest was deposed, because of his infirmities,
and in 1714, Jacques Charles Sabrevois came to act as commandant.
At this time it was decided that the term of a commandant should be
three years or during good behavior.
Sabrevois's term appears to have been uneventful and he was relieved
in 1717 by Henry Tonty, son of old " Bras de Fer" (Iron Hand).
Tonty, it would appear, was but a commandant pro tern, until the
appointee, Sieur Francois de Louvigny, should arrive two months later.
Louvigny remained for three years and in 1720 was relieved by the
appointment of Charles Joseph de Noyelle.
Noyelle's term was limited to a few months and then the audacious
and unscrupulous trickster, Alphonse de Tonty, whose fingers had long
been itching for a chance at the revenues of the post, was appointed
commandant. So well did Tonty pull his political wires that in spite of
flagrant abuses against the government and in spite of the protests of
the residents at the post, he remained in power for seven years through
his influence with Governors Vaudreuil, Longueuil and de Beauharnois
successively. He died at Detroit in 1727.
M. Joseph Le Pernouche was made temporary commandant and served
nearly a year.
In 1728 Jean Baptiste Deschaillions de St. Ours, a captain in the
French army at Quebec, was sent to Detroit. St. Ours was probably
better fitted for the duties of a soldier than for those of a civil ruler,
for he was relieved after eight months by M. de Boishebert.
Boishebert was a very able man and remained in office for two full
terms. Hughes Jacques Pean de Livandiere came next in 1734, but
he inaugurated a policy of plunder and was soon deposed.
Lieutenant Sabrevois had been promoted to a captaincy, and he came
again in 1734 and served nearly four years.
Chailes Joseph de Noyelle was given a second term in 1738.
Pierre Poyen de Noyan followed in 1741, and was relieved in 1742 by
Pierre de Celeron de Bienville.
Celeron retired in 1743, and Joseph Le Moyne, Sieur de Longueuil,
came for two successive terms which terminated in 1749.
The now aged Charles Jacques Sabrevois relieved Longueuil of his
command in 1749, but he retired in 1751, when Pierre de Celeron was
sent again to the post.
160
JOHN T. RICH.
Celeron remained a full term and was relieved by the appointment
of Jacques d'Anon, Sieur de Muy. This commandant remained until
1758 and saw the closing in of the great struggle which deprived the
French of Canada and the Northwest.
Francois Marie Picote de Bellestre, a man of unusual military ability
and great energy, was the last commandant of the French at Detroit.
He came in 1758 and directed the provisioning and reinforcing of the
posts south of Lake Erie during the war with the British, but he was
compelled to surrender Detroit to the British in 1760.
In the foregoing relation of the French efforts to extend the sov-
ereignty of that country in America, it will be seen that they were not
good colonizers, and in this respect were very much inferior to their
British rivals. The French sought to perpetuate in the western wilds
the same feudal systems that obtained in Normandy and Languedoc,
the vital defect of which was that tracts of land and trade monopolies
were bestowed upon the few, thus compelling the many to labor and
pay tribute, and remain is hopeless semi servitude. The vast domain
of New France, which might have blossomed as a rose under liberal
disposition of the lands to farmers and settlers, practically remained a
wilderness at the expiration of 148 years of French rule. As late as
1734 the entire population of New France was only 34,516. In 1760,
when it passed into the hands of the British, it was probably not more
than 40,000.
Between the years 1612 and 1760 twenty five French governors ruled
over New France from Quebec. They were :
1612-1635 — Samuel de Champlain.
1635-1636— Marc Antoine de Chateaufort.
1636-1648— Charles Huoult de Montmagny.
1648-1651 — Louis d'Aillebout de Coulonges.
1651-1656— Jean de Lauson.
1656 — Charles de Lauson-Charnay.
1657 — Louis d'Aillebout de Coulonges (second term).
1658-1661 — Pierre de Voyer, Viscount d'Argenson.
1661-1663 — Pierre du Bois, Baron d'Avangour.
1663 — Chevalier Augustin de Saffrey-Mesy.
1663-1665 — Alexandre de Prouville, Marquis de Tracey.
1665-1672— ChevaHer Daniel Remey de Courcelles.
1672-1682 — Louis de Buade, Count de Pelluanet de Frontenac.
1682-1685— Antoine Joseph le Febre de la Barre.
161
1085-1689 — Jacques Rene de Brissy, Marquis Denonville.
1689-1099 — Count Frontenac (second term).
1099-1703 — Chevalier Louis Hector de Callieres.
1703-1725 — Philip Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil.
1735-1726 — Charles de le Moyne, Baron de Longueuil.
1726-1747 — Charles, Marquis de Beauharnois.
1747-1749 — Roland Michel Barriu, Count de Gallissoniere.
1749-1752 — Jacques Pierre de Taffanel, Marquis de la Jonquiere.
1752 — Charles de le Moyne, Baron de Longueuil (second term).
1752-1755 — Marquis Duquesne de Menneville.
1755-1760 — Pierre Francois, Marquis de Vaudreuil-Casagnal.
CHAPTER XXI.
The British Take Possession of Detroit — Pontiac Demands Recognition of Them
— The Indians Prefer Frenchmen Who Treat Them as Equals — They Show an In-
clination to Attack the Newcomers — 1760.
There was naturally great rejoicing among the New York and New
England settlers over the great triumph of the British, for the trouble
with the French was at an end and it was believed that the Indian
wars would also cease. The war with the French was at an end on the
continent, although it continued until 1763 on the sea, and the settlers
were still in the midst of perils at the hands of the Indians. As has
been shown in the foregoing pages, the American Indians had been
generally divided into two opposing factions, one fighting the battles of
the French, the other the battles of the British. Now that strife was
apparently at an end. The French no longer fought their conquerors,
but they were smarting under defeat, and in revenge they worked upon
the prejudices of the savages. The British were not as congenial with
the Indians as the French had been, because they treated them as in-
feriors, and it soon became apparant that the contest between two na-
tions for territory had given place to a contest between the British and
the Indians. This tended to unite the heretofore unreconcilable Iro-
quois and Algonquins against what was now their common enemy
By the terms of settlement those of the French colonists who chose
could remain in the colony and retain most of their former rights-
162
those who chose to leave could do so by disposing of their property
under the approval of the British commandant. Several who had aided
the Indians in the siege of Detroit were severely punished, but most of
those who had been in open hostility escaped to St. Louis, on Peoria
Lake, in what is now Illinois, then part of Louisiana. Ten years be-
fore the surrender the Chevalier Repentigny had obtained a grant of
seigniory over lands near Sault Ste. Marie, and had erected a fort and
several houses inside his stockade, but upon the surrender he aban-
doned his land and returned to France. Lieutenant Jamette was sent
to take possession of Sault Ste. Marie, but for some time after the Brit-
ish had become masters of the country the island of Mackinac was
abandoned to the Chippewas, who had a village there. When Com-
mandant Bellestre had been escorted by British soldiers away toward
the sea, there remained of the settlement at Detroit about 300 dwell-
ings and perhaps 2,000 inhabitants. This was the estimate of Major
Rogers, who received the surrender, and it is probably very nearly cor-
rect. The French had fallen into the customs of the Indians, ,and
many families held as slaves Indian captives, whom they had purchased
from victorious warriors. These and a few Africans were recognized
as property by the British, and the owners retained possession. These
Indian slaves were captives who had been brought from the South and
Southwest by victorious war parties, and so many of them were Paw-
nees that the name Pawnee or Pani was applied to all. They were later
given their freedom, but some lived about the settlement to the day of
their deaths, and Judge Burnett, in his " Notes on the Northwest States, "
says that the last of the lot was in the employ of Judge Woodbridge.
The French settlers at Detroit were well treated and professed to be
grateful for the change. They had endured great privations during
the preceding seven years, as all the government appropriations had
gone to strengthen the two cities on the St. Lawrence, and even those
had been but meagerly maintained.
In a letter written November 2, 1760, by Captain Donald Campbell,
the first British commandant, to his superior, Colonel Boquet, who was
stationed at Presque Isle (Erie), he says: "We experienced some bad
weather on the lake during our voyage to this place and lost one man
overboard. Our ammunition was considerably damaged, so that we
are in immediate need of more. Mr. Navarre, the civil officer of the
post, will continue in his old capacity until he can teach his successor
the duties of his office. We find the fort badly off for all supplies and
163
the inhabitants in sore distress. T\\e stockade is one of the best I have
ever seen; but we must have food and ammunition, and I fear it will
be a hard matter to bring them by water at this time of the year." In
another letter written December 11, 1760, he says: "I am greatly
obliged for the flour you sent. It was twenty three days on the way
and somewhat damaged. The ammunition came safely. Captain Waite
brought with him thirty-three barrels of pork (all Major Walters could
spare him) and it will be a great relief. We have also eleven bullocks.
M. Navarre, a most excellent man, has undertaken to furnish us with
20,000 pounds of flour, 100 bushels of peas and 100 bushels of corn
We pay the same rate as the French king allowed for flour, fifty shillings
per hundred weight. Indians are furnishing venison at a moderate
price. Major Rogers has about stripped us in supplying the adjoining
posts [at Maumee and Sandusky], Owing to the scarcity of food the
commander at Mackinaw has been obliged to take his men to winter
among the Indians. Lieutenant Butler and his rangers are living among
the Ottawas at the Miami [Maumee] post. At the point where he is
stationed he is but nine miles from the Wabash River. I hope you will
encourage trade with Pittsburg, for I cannot persuade the men to go
there with their horses; they are so accustomed to canoes."
A new era seemed about to dawn. The British, who have always
been the most successful colonists, resolved to explore the interior of
the country and open up the lands for settlement. Their predecessors
had looked for nothing but furs and gold mines, without stopping to
consider that the agricultural products of the soil are always more val-
uable than all other, taking everything in the aggregate. During the
three years in which the treaty of peace was pending, little was done.
The old regulations governing the settlements of New France continued
in operation, but the land-lookers were abroad searching out the rich
prairie lands, the oak openings and the timbered areas.
This territory was under the control of Sir William Johnson and
Gen. Thomas Gage, who were lieutenants of Sir Jeffrey Amherst, gov-
ernor-general of the British colony. Although Major Rogers and
Colonel Croghan, who led the British troops to Detroit, were his
superior officers, Capt. Donald Campbell, of the Royal American
Regiment, was made commandant pending the settlement of peace.
The reason for this choice does not appear. Croghan and Rogers un-
dertook to reconcile the Indians to the change of government. Un-
scrupulous British traders flocked into the region from which they had
164
so long been barred, and their methods were such as to rouse the
latent hostility of the Indians, and drew upon them the condemnation
of those settlers who loved law and order. If the British ever had an
opportunity for winning the favor of the Indians, these cheating, law-
less fellows would have made it impossible. Sir William Johnson, in
his reports made years after, admitted that the savages had been driven
to hostility.
It needed but one man of will and intellect, who enjoyed the con-
fidence of the Indians, to unite all the savages of the country in a com-
mon cause against the white invaders. That man was at hand, and,
although an untutored savage, he was still a genius For many years
the Ottawas had made what is now Walkerville, Ont., their Detroit
headquarters. Their head chief was Pontiac, whose reputation as a
warrior was known to all the Indians far and near. The British did
not suspect that they were opposed by a ver}^ Cambyses in military
daring, a man whose personal influence could unite all his fellows into
a harmonious body, in spite of their ancient feuds, and plan a series of
swift campaigns which were calculated to drive the invaders from every
frontier fort. Other Indian chiefs had led bands of several allied
tribes on campaigns, but they were always inspired by a single purpose,
and when that failed or was accomplished the Indians scattered in the
forest and presently sued for peace. Pontiac planned to exterminate
the British at Mackinac, at Detroit, at the outposts near Toledo and
Sandusky, and all along the frontier, and he sought to execute his
purpose by a series of masterly stratagems, which nothing but for-
tuitous discovery prevented from being successful. It is common
practice for writers of romance to tnake their Indian heroes a com-
pound of Hercules and Apollo; but Pontiac, instead of being gigantic
and beautiful, was a man of medium size, with a thick Roman nose,
broad and high cheek bones and a heavy jaw. His eyes were large
and bold, and his mental and physical activity were somewhat dis-
guised by the stoical temperament of his race. His favorite summer
residence was on Peche Island, about three miles from the Ottawa
fort at Walkerville. Within a short time after the British had taken
\\X)ssession General Gage learned that Pontiac was very active among
the Indians of the North, and also that he was in constant communica-
tion with some French people who had not accepted the issue of war
with good grace. Alexander Henry, a trader from the east, was at
first refused a permit to travel to Mackinac for fear of trouble, but he
165
finally went, leaving Detroit disguised as a courciir de bois. Henry
knew that he was taking his life in his hands, but traders of that day
were so accustomed to peril that it was only the most imminent dan-
gers that kept them in the settlements. Captain Campbell was a
pleasure loving man of unsuspicious temperament. The fact that the
British had conquered both the French and their Indian allies caused
him to hold the Indians alone in contempt.
During their residence at Detroit the various French commandants
had enlarged and strengthened the fort, and it now inclosed a space
372 feet north and south by 600 feet east and west. At each corner on
the river front strong bastions commanded the approach to the central
gate, and the north gate was similarly protected. A bastion also pro-
jected from the east side of the fort, but the battery of the place was a
weak affair made up of five small guns, three mortars and two three-
pounders. The narrow streets which Cadillac had laid out were still
there and were extended outside the stockade. The greater part of the
houses were outside the inclosure. Soon after the surrender the seat
of government for the newly acquired territory was removed from Que-
bec to New York, and Gen. Jeffrey Amherst, who had been so active
in the late war, was placed in general control. Presently disquieting
rumors began to reach his ears. The French and Indians were reported
to be working together with suspicious intimacy, while each showed a
lack of cordiality toward the British, and it was believed that a con-
spiracy was on foot to drive, the British away from Detroit and re-
establish either the French or Indian domination. General Amherst
sent Sir William Johnson, the ablest Indian commissioner the English
possessed in the colonies, to Detroit to investigate the truth of the ru-
mors, and ascertain the real status of affairs. Sir William arrived at
his destination September 3, 1761, having coasted in bateaux along the
north shore of Lake Erie, and he brought Capt. Henry Gladwin and a
detachment of 300 troops, with stores, ammunition, etc., for the post.
Sir William remained at the post fifteen days, holding councils with the
Indians in the daytime and devoting his evenings to social pleasures
with the citizens. He made treaties with the Ottawas, Potawatomies
and Miamis, who resided in the vicinity of the fort, and also with tiK._'^-
Chippewas of the North and the Delawares, Shawnees and Senecas of
the Ohio region. These nations had been invited to meet him in coun-
cil and the commissioner w^as liberal in bestowing presents. He also
sent troops and supplies to the lake posts above and below, and form-
166
ulated new trade regulations. Sir William was an Irishman of cordial
and winning disposition and an official of large experience and great
capacity. Among the French gentlemen he met at Detroit were Col-
onel Du Quesne and Major La Mothe, two officers who had surrendered
their swords to him at Niagara. There was a round of festivities, Sir
William entertaining his guests in the quarters of M. Bellestre, the last
French commandant, and he made many visits to the homes of the
leading citizens, including a visit to the Huron mission across the river,
where he was entertained by Father Potier, the missionary priest.
During his visit. Major Henry Gladwin, the new commandant, was
confined to his bed by an attack of fever and ague, and Captain Donald
Campbell had charge of the post. In Sir William's diary occurs the
following passages :
"September 6, — a very fine morning. This evening I am to dine with Captain
Campbell, who is also to give the ladies a ball that I maj' meet them. They assem-
bled at 8 p. M. to the number of twenty. I opened the ball with Mademoiselle Cuil-
lerier, a fine girl; we danced till five o'clock in the morning.
"Monday, September 14, — I had for dinner this evening the French gentlemen of
Detroit; also the vicar-general Bocquet of the French church, and the Jesuit Father
Potier of the Huron Mission, on the opposite side of the river. There was plenty
of good wine and my guests got very merry. I invited them all to a ball that I am to
give to-morrow night.
The entry for September 15, says that the ball lasted the whole night
until seven o'clock in the morning.
" I promised to write Mile. Cuillerier as soon as possible, my senti-
ments," Sir William concludes.
On the 17th Sir William crossed the river and visited the Huron vil-
lage, where the warriors were drawn up in line; they presented arms
and fired a salute. He addressed their council, and afterward took
supper with Father Potier. Next day he embarked for his return
homeward. The beauty and attractions of Mile. Cuillerier made a
great impression upon the gallant Irish superintendent of Indian affairs,
and he corresponded with her for several years, and even after her
marriage to James Sterling, a Scotch merchant and British official at
Detroit.
Sir William Johnson was a man of varied talents and a figure of
aiuch importance in the early English colonies. He was born in Ire-
land in 1715. His uncle. Sir Peter Warren, married Miss Delancy, a
New York heiress, who had large estates, and William Johnson came
over in 1738 to take the management of them. He settled at Warrens-
167
burg, near Schenectady, where the Mohawks made him one of their
sachems. Governor Clinton made him colonel of the Iroquois in 1744.
In 1746 he was Indian commissioner of the colony, and two years later
he was given command of the New York colonial troops which repelled
an attack from the French and Indians of the north. In 1750 the king
made him a member of the governor's council. He settled a serious
difference between the settlers of the Mohawk valley and the Indians
in 1753, and General Braddock made him superintendent of the Iroquois
and their allies. As commander-in-chief of the Crown Point expe-
dition, he defeated Baron Dieskiau, and for this was given $25,000 and
made a baronet. He succeeded General Prideaux at the siege of Niag-
ara, when the latter was killed by the explosion of a gun, and captured
the fort. He was also present at the capture of Montreal. After his
return from Detroit, in 1761, he was given as a reward 100,000 acres of
land north of the Mohawk River, for preventing all the Iroquois, except
the Senecas, from joining in Pontiac's conspiracy. In 1764 he built a
home at Johnstown. In 1736 he married Catherine Wisenburg, who
died leaving a son and two daughters. Thereafter he had many mis-
tresses, both white and Indian. His favorite was Molly Brant, a sister
of Joseph Brant, the Mohawk chief, whom he educated, and eight chil-
dren resulted from this alliance. He provided for them in his will.
When he died in 1774, it was said that he left one hundred children,
but three of whom were legitimate.
Meanwhile Spain had been playing an important but secondary role
in North America. Her wars with other European powers were gen-
erally followed by losses or acquisitions of territory on this continent.
Louisiana was settled by the French in 1609, two years before the
founding of Detroit, and Iberville founded the first colony at Biloxi,
which is now in the State -of Mississippi. The French remained in
possession of Louisiana until 1762, when they ceded it to Spain, being
glad to avoid a possible contest with England for it. Spain found the
holding of this vast territory too onerous and it was retroceded to
France in 1800. Napoleon saw that it could not be held as against
Great Britain, so in 1803 he shrewdly sold it to the United States, the
only power that had successfully resisted British domination on the
continent. The price paid was $15,000,000. Louisiana at that tirffi,
included all the country west of the Mississippi not occupied by Spain,
extending as far north as the British territory and comprising the
whole or part of the present States of Arkansas, Kansas, Indian Ter-
168
DON M. DICKINSON.
^^
ritory, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Louisiana, Mississippi,
Alabama, the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and Wash-
ington. In 1762 there was trouble between England and Spain, and
Pontiac was made to believe that Spain would help the French to
recover New France.
CHAPTER XXII.
Pontiac, the Napoleon of the Western Indians — He Conspires with the Chiefs of
Sixty Tribes to Drive the British Out of the Country — His Plans are Betrayed to
Commandant Gladwin— 1761-1763.
When Gladwin assumed command he made Captain Campbell his
deputy. Campbell had made himself very popular with the old resi-
dents of Detroit, and the Indians regarded him with more favor than
was usually bestowed by them upon an Englishman. His influence
tended to keep the savages in good humor at Detroit, even while
trouble was brewing. Gladwin was a brusque and business-like com-
mandant, with a manner in striking contrast to that of Captain Camp-
bell, and the Indians did not like him. Some of the French who
were in suspicious intimacy with the savages also disliked the new
commandant, but Gladwin scarcely gave the threatening troubles a
serious thought, although strict regulations were observed in furnish-
ing the savages with rum and gunpowder. While he was resting in
fancied security at the fort, Peche Island, the summer home of Pontiac
on Lake St. Clair, about a mile east of the present eastern limits of
Detroit, was a center of great activity. Indian runners came and
went, some in canoes and others on foot. They carried the war belts
and the plans and instructions of the great Ottawa chieftain to distant
tribes, and brought reports of the defenses and garrisons at each
frontier fort, so that the chief would know when and in what manner
to strike his intended blow. Between the fort and Pontiac's head-
quarters stood Belle Isle, then known as He au Cochon (Hog Island),
and its dense growth of forest shut off the view of Pontiac's headquar-
ters from the fort.
Early in April Pontiac called a grand council of nations at the River
aux Ecorces, which empties into the Detroit River a few miles below
169
Detroit, and there the Ottawas held conference with the Chippewas,
Potawatomies, Miamis, Shawnees, Ottagamies, Winnebagoes, Massasa-
gas and several other tribes, including the Senecas of the Iroquois
confederacy. He submitted his scheme for a simultaneous attack upon
Forts Pitt, Venango, Presque Isle, Le Boeuf, Sandusky, Detroit, St.
Joseph, Mackinac and Green Bay. This included all the posts from
Pittsburg to the north, and these controlled the headwaters of the
Ohio, the south shore of Lake Erie, the Detroit River, the Straits of
Mackinac and Lake Michigan. The attacks were to be made so that
each post would be too busy in its own defense to render assistance to
any other, and, as far as possible, the attacks were to be made while
the defenders were thrown off their guard by their apparent security.
After submitting his plan Pontiac delivered an impassioned speech
which roused the fighting blood of the assembled chiefs to fever heat.
In the speech he alluded to the fact that in 1746 he had aided the
French in defending Detroit against Turtle, chief of the Chippewas,
and also at Fort Du Quesne (Pittsburg) in 1755 against the British
under Braddock, and was successful in both cases.
About the first of May the various tribes engaged in the plan com-
menced gathering about the various forts which were marked for de-
struction during that month. The Ottawas, who were the leaders in
this war, were the most civilized of all the Michigan tribes, and their
wars and forays were far less atrocious than those of the treacherous
Chippewas, who reveled in indiscriminate slaughter. More than once
in the history of the colony did the Ottawas save white men from death
and torture at the hands of other tribes, and this gave them the repu-
tation of being friendly. Bands of Ottawas, Chippewas and Potawato-
mies were dispatched to Mackinac and St. Joseph, the latter at the
mouth of the St. Joseph River, on Lake Michigan, to capture these
forts, while Pontiac took personal charge of the operations against the
more formidable fort of Detroit. Other bands were sent against the
other forts nained. Pontiac's warriors began to congregate about the
fort of Detroit on May 1, 1763, and in order to allay suspicion and at
the same time examine the surroundings, a band of forty braves danced
the calumet dance before the commandant's house. At this time Major
Gladwin had no suspicion of an immediate attack. The main body of
Pontiac's tribe was then encamped on the Michigan shore, a little more
than a mile east of the fort, on the farther side of Parent's Creek, which
was later known as Bloody Run. The French residents, as usual, went
170
back and forth between the settlement and the camp to trade. Most
of them were anxious to see the territory restored to France, which
was perfectl}' natural. The better class of them, however, were not
willing to have it done at the expense of a general massacre, although
the British in former years had done little to merit consideration. Three
days later Madame Guoin, wife of a settler, visited the Ottawa camp,
and on returning told her husband that the Ottawas were up to some
mischief, as she had seen a number of them filing off their gun barrels
to half length with a show of secrecy. Guoin informed some of the
soldiers at the fort, and two days later, on the evening of May 7, the
plan of Pontiac to capture the fort was revealed to Major Gladwin.
This information was given under the seal of secrecy, because the in-
former would have met death at the hands of the Indians had his or her
name been discovered, and, as will presently appear, there may have-
been other powerful reasons for keeping the secret for all time to come.
Gladwin was a man of honor and so scrupulously did he keep his
word that no mention is made of the informant in all his papers, which
have been carefully examined and collated by Charles Moore, and
which were recently published in the records of the Michigan Histor-
ical Society. Mr. Moore has spent much time and research on the sub-
ject of Michigan's early history, and some of the details of this account
of the Pontiac conspiracy were obtained from his published brochure
entitled, "The Gladwin Papers." One of the theories of the revela-
tion to Gladwin is based upon an ancient French manuscript which was
found tucked away amid the rafters of an old Canadian homestead as it
was being demolished to make room for a more modern structure. It
is not signed, but the author is supposed to have been a priest of old
St. Anne's. Translations of it appear in at least four of the histories
of Michigan. This manuscript is authority for the statement that Mo-
hiacan, an Ottawa warrior, who was opposed to Pontiac's scheme, re-
vealed the conspiracy. He is said to have come to the gate of the fort
late Friday evening, and told Captain Campbell that on the next day
Pontiac with sixty of his picked warriors would enter the fort to talk
about a treaty, and at a given signal they would draw their concealed
weapons, kill the English officers and give the residents over to slaugh-
ter. He was so afraid of betrayal that he would not trust his revela-
tion to the French interpreter. La Butte, but gave it as best he could
in broken English. Another tradition has it that a daughter of La
Butte told Gladwin of the conspiracy, and still another has it that a
171
Pawnee slave saved the British. The most popular theory is that of
Parkman. It was about an Indian girl of the Ojibway or Chippewa tribe,
named Catherine, who had frequented the fort, and become enamored
of the commandant. She had done various tasks in his employ in the
making of articles, which he had sent as presents to his friends in Eng-
land. On the evening of May 7 she came to the commandant's quar-
ters with a pair of elkskin moccasins, which she had embroidered with
stained porcupine quills. With the moccasins she returned the re-
mainder of the skin which he had given her, and which had not been
used. Gladwin had intended the slippers for a friend, but they pleased
him so much that he told the young woman to take back the rest of
the skin and make another pair of moccasins for his personal use. The
girl refused to take the skin and stood apart looking out of the window,
apparently undergoing some sort of a struggle with herself. When
pressed as to her reason for not taking the task she replied that if she
made the moccasins she would not be able to deliver them to him in
the spirit land. Her strange words led to further inquiry and on being
pressed with questions she revealed, under promise of strict secrecy,
the details of Pontiac's diabolical scheme. A writer remarks: "If
this were all that is told of her she ought to be enshrined in history
with Nancy Ward, the prophetess of the Cherokees. But tradition has
added that after the siege she took to strong drink, and while in a
maudlin condition she fell into a vat of boiling maple syrup and so
perished ingloriously. Alas! that so much fidelity, human compas-
sion and loveliness should come to an end in a kettle of boiling mo-
lasses."
When Parkman wrote the "Conspiracy of Pontiac " his informants
in regard to the betrayal of Pontiac's plans were a few old men who
were children when the drama was enacted, and whose stories were
simply a repetition of tales told them while they were very young, and
whose memories were naturally unreliable. Mr. Parkman also care-
fully searched the archives in the British Museum which related to De-
troit, but could find no corroborative documents in support of the
romantic episode he relates in his famous work.
Another theory respecting the person who gave the timely informa-
tion to Major Gladwin has been broached by Richard R. Elliott, of this
city, whose knowledge of the early history of Detroit is extensive and
profound, and to whom the compilers of this work are indebted for the
' interesting sketch of the Huron mission of Detroit. There is probably
172
no positive or direct proof existing of the identity of Gladwin's inform-
ant, but Mr. Elliott's theory is more circumstantial than any that has
yet appeared. It may be premised that Fathers Richardie and Potier,
of the Huron mission, were on terms of intimacy with the old French
families on both sides of the river, and notable with Pierre Meloche, a
prominent habitan, whose workshop was on the south side of the river,
just east of the Ottawa fort. Meloche's home was on the north side of
the Detroit River, just opposite his workshop, and his near neighbor
was Charles Parent. Both of these men were great friends of Pontiac,
as were most of the French families in the region. Pontiac also did a
good deal of business with the Huron mission storehouse, which was
on the river, about three miles below the Ottawa fort, as he naturally
preferred to deal with the French rather than the English. One of the
details of Pontiac's plan was the cutting off of a portion of the rifle
barrels of his chiefs in order to conceal them from the eyes of the gar-
rison. These must have been cut off by means of fine-tempered steel
files. Where were these files obtained? They were not kept in stock
by the French, English or Scotch traders in Detroit, but they could be
procured at the Huron mission, which had a forge where arms and agri-
cultural implements could be repaired or remodeled. One of the en-
tries in the account book of the mission during the French regime,
dated February 20, 1751, is as follows: "Jean Bart, armorer of Fort
Pontchartrain, 15 pounds steel springs; 18 pounds steel bars; 28 steel
files." Exclusive purchases of files were previously entered. It is more
than probable that these files were procured at the mission, for they
could not have been purchased elsewhere in this region. Such an un-
usual transaction coming to the notice of Father Potier doubtless led
him to investigate its cause, and that Gladwin was warned by him is
more than probable. Of course Father Potier would effect his object in
such a manner as not to compromise his friends, and also to make it
impossible for Pontiac to ascertain who was the informant, whose days
would be numbered if his identity were discovered.
After Father Potier's death in 1781 the following papers were found
among his effects: The Huron Grammar; a diary of events which
occurred at the mission; an account book in which the prices of mer-
chandise and the names of customers are set forth ; a resume of the
important events that happened in the old world; a directory of resi-
dent Frenchmen on both sides of the straits and their status at the
post of Detroit and vicinity; a census of the Huron Indians at San-
173
dusky, Bois Blanc and Detroit; a census of the Ottawas whose canton-
ment was on the present site of Walkerville, Ont. ; and his private
correspondence, which consisted of copies of letters written by himself
and the originals of letters received. But his diary did not contain
anything relating to events transpiring in 1761-63, during which the
conspiracy of Pontiac and the siege of Detroit took place. The leaves
containing these records had been removed by him, a fact which
strengthened the belief that he informed Gladwin of the murderous
object. Summing it all up, Mr. Elliott's theory is that Father Potier
warned the commandant through Mile. Cuillerier, the sparkling and
attractive daughter of Antoine Cuillerier, the French trader. Mr,
Elliott adds that if the Canadian records were carefully searched,
it is probable that some document may be found that will throw a light
upon these services and thus prove or disprove his theory. Whoever
informed Gladwin did so under the seal of secrecy, and this was
honorably observed by the commandant. None of his papers throw
any light on the subject, and he evidently wished it to be kept secret
for all time.
■ Gladwin, although but twenty- three years of age, was no novice in
Indian warfare. He had accompanied the disastrous Braddock expe-
dition against Fort Du Quesne, and was aware that Pontiac had been
one of the leaders in the fight at Little Meadows eight years before.
So it may be imagined that he lost no time in planning to meet the
treachery of Pontiac with a show of force that would check the con-
spiracy at the very outset. He had no idea that the Indians would
muster in sufficient force to attempt the capture of Detroit by siege.
The night of May 7, 1763, was a busy one inside the palisades; sen-
tinets patrolled the inner wall of the fort, casting anxious glances out
into the darkness where the gleam of distant camp fires showed through
the forest. Canoes crossed and recrossed the river, bringing more
warriors from the Canadian shore and landing them a short distance
below Belle Isle. Captain Campbell and the officers of the fort walked
the narrow streets, giving warning to the inhabitants that they must
keep inside the fortifications on the following day, as the Indians were
known to be in a dangerous mood. Arms were carefully loaded and
put in order for immediate use; ammunition was dealt out, every man
saw that the flint of his gun was in condition for immediate use, and all
possible precautions were taken to defeat the project of the enemy.
All night the stars shone upon a scene of woodland beauty ; on the
174
river gently rippling past the fort, and on the Indian camp where the
warriors were dreaming of the scene of massacre and the scalp harvest
which they expected on the morrow. Sixty chiefs were to enter the
assembly hall in the fort, each man clad in his blanket and gripping
through its folds a shortened musket with its death-dealing load.
Pontiac was to address the commandant as if preparing for a treaty of
peace and every warrior was to be on the alert. If the occasion proved
favorable for an onslaught, Pontiac was to present Major Gladwin with
a belt of wampum held in reversed position; if unfavorable he was to
present it in the usual fashion. In the mean time the other warriors
were to collect close to the gate, and if the signal for the massacre was
given, they would be admitted immediately and would participate in
the slaughter.
At ten o'clock next morning Pontiac led his sixty warriors to the
gate and they were admitted within the stockade. He saw that the
sentinels at the gate were armed with sword, pistol and musket, and
that the narrow streets were filled with soldiers, every one of whom
was fully armed. It may be imagined that the chief and his warriors
exchanged meaning glances at this display of force, but they had gone
too far to recede. They entered the assembly hall and met Major Glad-
win surrounded with a goodly company of men all fully armed. The
Indian chief sat on the floor as usual. "Why does my English brother
keep his young men armed and on parade as if for battle?" inquired
Pontiac coldly. " Does my brother expect the soldiers of the French?"
"I keep my "soldiers armed that they may be perfect in their ex-
ercise of arms, so that they may be ready to fight well if a war should
come," replied Gladwin pointedly.
During this trying moment the sixty chiefs sat grim and silent, their
dark eyes turning from Pontiac to Gladwin and casting furtive glances
at the soldiers in the room who appeared to be peculiarly alert. Their
stoical training, which enabled them to undergo torture without com-
plaint, stood them in good stead, for not an eye quailed, and not
a tremor of a muscle betrayed the deadly purpose on which they were
bent. They were ready to slay or be slain, and the manner in which
their chief presented the wampum belt would decide a matter of life or
death for perhaps six hundred souls. Pontiac arose at one end of the
row and began an address to Gladwin, assuring him of his regard for
the Englishmen. They had driven the French warriors from Detroit,
he said, because they were mighty men in battle, and the Ottawas and
175
all other tribes of the region desired to express their good will and
eternal friendship for the white chief. In token of that friendship he
had brought a belt of wampum which he would give in honor of the
occasion. Thej^ would light the calumet in token of peace which
should be observed between them. As Pontiac began unfastening
the wampum belt from his girdle the British soldiers in the council hall
at a signal from Gladwin half drew their swords from their scabbards;
the sentinel who stood in the open door signaled to a long row of
soldiers ranged in front of the entrance; the drums rolled the assem-
bly and the soldiers outside made a noisy clatter of arms. Death
hovered in the air about that assembly, and Pontiac felt its presence.
His hand did noL tremble; the belt was calmly unfastened and after an
instant of hesitation he handed it over to Gladwin in the usual fashion
— and death passed them by. It was Gladwin's turn to reply. He
took the belt and turned upon Pontiac and his followers with bitter
words of reproach. He taunted them with being traitors who had
planned to butcher the men and women for whom they had professed
friendship but a moment before.
" Look! false chief, you have thought to deceive me with lies and to
slay me by treachery, but I know the treachery and hate that your
lying tongue would hide. You are armed, every man of you with
a shortened gun like this chief by my side."
He stepped to the nearest Indian and pulling aside the folds of his
blanket revealed the shortened musket.
"My brother does me wrong; he does not believe? Then we will
go," replied Pontiac.
His dark eyes sparkled with baffled rage, but with perfect dignity he
rose, gathered the folds of his blanket about his broad shoulders and
walked with measured tread down the hall and out between the double
file of armed soldiers. He might have been passing in review, but for
the look of scorn and hate which distorted his countenance. His
picked warriors followed sullenly and silently, and they passed through
the gate into the village beyond.
Less fortunate were the other posts in Michigan. At the moulh of
the St. Joseph River, where Father Allouez had founded a mission
among the Miamis and La Salle had built a rude fort, was a garrison of
fourteen men under command of Ensign Schlosser. They had no
warning of the great conspiracy, and on the morning of May 25, 1763,
a band of Potawatomies suddenly attacked the fort. Eleven of the
176
soldiers were killed and scalped before they could attempt defense.
Ensign Schlosser and three others were taken to Detroit and ran-
somed.
At Fort Sandusky, on May 17, Ensign PauUy was called upon by a
party of Indians who had been perfectly friendly up to that moment.
He admitted seven of them and gave them tobacco. At a signal from
the chief of the party he was seized and bound and carried out of the
fort. He passed his sentry lying dead across the entry. His twenty-
seven soldiers were all dead and lying scalpless in the yard, the mer-
chants of the post had been killed in their places of business and their
stores were being plundered. Paully was carried to Detroit, where he
was given as a husband to an unattractive old squaw, from whom he
made his escape to the fort June 14.
Ensign Holmes, in charge of the fort on the Miami of the Lakes, or
Maumee River, was preparing for defense against a possible attack
when he was called out to bleed a sick Indian in a wigwam near the
fort. He was shot down while on his way, and the garrison surren-
dered to a party of Frenchmen who were on their way to St. Louis
(Peoria), Illinois, to secure a French commandant for Detroit.
At Mackinac, on June 2, the slaughter was far worse, as the place
was defended by a garrison of thirty six men under Captain Ethering-
ton. The commandant was a man of easy disposition who held the
savages in contempt and disregarded warnings to prepare for treachery.
The Indians were numerous about the fort every day, but so long as
they were not allowed to enter while bearing arms they were con-
sidered harmless. On the morning of June 2 an unusual number
collected to witness a game of lacrosse, into, which the two sides
entered with great zeal, and the ball was flung wildly about. The
squaws stood near the entrance to the fort looking on and presentl}^ a
wild throw, apparently by accident, sent the ball over the palisades.
In great excitement the Indians rushed through the gate apparently in
quest of the ball, but each man as he ran was handed weapons by the
squaws, who had concealed them in their garments. The character of
the scene changed in an instant. Captain Etherington and his soldiers
had been looking on with interest and several bets had been made on
the result of the game, when suddenly they were surrounded by a
hundred yelling savages who attacked the defenseless garrison with
tomahawk and scalping knife. The captain. Lieutenant Leslie and
fourteen privates were all the soldiers that were spared. Alexander
177
Henry, the trader, was sought for, but a Pawnee slave woman hid him
away in the garret of Mr. Langlade, a French resident, where he was
subsequently discovered. But Wawatam, an Indian whom he had
befriended, interceded for him and the trader's life was spared. While
Henry was hidden in the Langlade garret he could hear the blows of
the tomahawks, and amid the frenzied yells of the Indians he could
distinguish the moans of the dying. When the awful orgie of blood
was ended the bodies of Lieutenant Jomet, twenty soldiers, and a trader
named Tracy, were cut up and boiled in huge kettles for a general
feast. The Indians in this massacre were mostly Chippewas. Henry
was concealed for a few days on Mackinac Island in Scull Cave, and
when the excitement had died out he made his way to Detroit. Cap-
tain Etherington and his few surviving captives were taken to the
mission at L'Arbe Croche, on the northern shore of the lower penin-
sula, and were well treated until they were exchanged. It is said that
they owed their lives to the intercession of the few Ottawas who were
present at the massacre. In all these massacres the French were not
molested.
CHAPTER XXIII.
Detroit is Besieged by 2,000 Indians — Murder of Captain Donald Campbell and a
Number of Settlers — Massacres at Mackinaw, St. Joseph, Miami, Sandusky and
Other Posts— 1763.
Major Gladwin no doubt believed that the crisis was over, for the
idea of a well organized siege of the fort probably did not occur to him.
He had but 123 soldiers and eight officers, together with about fifty fur
traders who were stopping in the fort, and his artillery was limited to
two six-pounders and five smaller guns. The garrison, however, was
well protected within its strong log walls, and outside the barrier was
a glacis protected by three rows of sharp pickets. There was no lack
of water, for the savages could not turn aside the river which flowed
close to the south gate ; and two small vessels, the sloop Beaver and the
schooner Gladwin, were available for bringing supplies to the garrison
and the besieged settlers. No doubt Gladwin underestimated the force
which was opposed to him. It was characteristic of Indian warfare
178
that the greater part of the fighting men kept out of sight as much as
possible, so that it would be impossible to determine their numbers,
but the army which Pontiac gathered at Detroit was between 1,500 and
2,000 warriors. There were no immediate signs of hostility after the
baffled chiefs had left the fort. The afternoon passed quietly, but at
sundown six warriors appeared before the gate leading an old squaw,
whose appetite for liquor often led her into indiscretions. They were
admitted and Gladwin was asked if she was the informant who had told
lies about the Indians. Gladwin assured them that she was not the
person, and when they demanded the name of the informer, he replied
that it was one of themselves, and that he had sworn never to reveal
the name. They dragged their captive back to the camp, and Pontiac
vented his spite upon her by beating her over the head with a stick
until she fell half stunned to the ground. His followers clamored for
her life, but he waived them back because it was possible that she was
innocent. Nearly twenty hours passed before the Indians appeared
again about the fort. Sunday morning was quietly spent, but late in
the afternoon several canoes paddled down from the Indian camp and
landed at the fort. Pontiac was the leader of the party. He sent word
to Gladwin, asking him to come out on the common, as he wanted to
smoke the pipe of peace. The young commandant saw in this another
treacherous ruse to get possession of his person, and he refused to have
anything to do with the chief.
Captain Campbell had never considered the Indians seriously, but
believed with kind treatment and a little finesse they could be perfectly
controlled. No doubt he was somewhat conceited because of the gen-
eral good. will which he enjoyed above the rest of the garrison, for both
the French and the Indians were very friendly- toward him. He ob-
tained permission to go out and smoke the pipe of peace with the del-
egation of chiefs, thinking that a little courtesy would pacify them.
He brought back information that next day Pontiac would call a grand
council of all the tribes, and that he would them disperse them in peace.
Next morning canoes were seen massing below Belle Isle, and soon
after a Aeet of fifty-six came down the stream to land about 500 In-
dians at the fort. The gates were closed and an interpreter was sent
out to parley with Pontiac. He asked admission for all his followers
for the purpose of holding a grand council, but was informed that he
and sixty of his followers would be admitted and no more. The answer
made Pontiac furious.
179
"Tell the chief of the Red Coats that my warriors are all equal,
said he; "unless every man of them is admitted not one will enter.
Tell the white chief that he may stay in his fort if he will, but I will
keep the country."
He leaped into his canoe and was paddled swiftly toward the Ottawa
village up the river. There was no occasion for dissimulation now,
and the Indians looked about for victims. The French settlers were
on friendly terms with the Indians and showed no alarm, and the few
British settlers outside of the fort believed they would be secure. The
widow Armstrong and her two sons lived but a short distance from the
fort. They were attacked by the Indians and butchered within sight
of the fort. On He au Cochon (Belle Isle) lived an English settler
named James Fisher, who had been a sergeant in the arm}'. He had
a wife and four children and he employed a man servant. Three sol-
diers from the fort were stopping at his house at the time. A band of
Indians landed on the island and butchered all the adults. The four
little children (children of Fisher) were either drowned in the river or
carried away into captivity. The Indians also killed twenty- four head
of cattle on the island. Unfortunately a boating expedition was absent
from the fort, employed in searching out the most available passage for
large boats from Lake St. Clair into the St. Clair River. With this
party was Sir Robert Davers, who had spent the winter at the fort and
was a boon companion with Captain Campbell. Sir Robert was accom-
panied by Captain Robertson and a crew of six men. The Indians met
them and the entire party were murdered on their way back to the fort.
The Indians then sent word to the fort by a Frenchman that all the
English people outside the fort had been killed, and that those inside
would meet the same fate imless they took to the two vessels and left
the fort with all its supplies to the Indians. Pontiac's mission to the
Ottawa village was to order all supplies carried to the new camp ground
east of the ravine of Parent's Creek, now known as Bloody Run, and
the squaws were to come over from the village, which was located on
the site of Walkerville, to prepare food for the fighting men. Return-
ing to the camp Pontiac put on the war paint of his tribe, after which
he danced the grand war dance; chanted about the prowess of his war-
riors, and recounted the wrongs they had to revenge upon the English.
His example was imitated by the others; the circle of the dance widened,
and the chanting was interrupted by wild yells as the Indians worked
themselves into a frenzy of passion. In a short time the whole camp
180
was inflamed with a thirst for blood, and the echoing yells were wafted
down to the fort, givingnotice that a war had begun. When morning-
broke upon the settlement the sentinels discovered that the Indians had
moved up close to the fort where they could find shelter from the soldiers'
muskets behind the outer row of houses. War was declared, but strat-
egy was not at an end. A party of Wyandottes stopped at the fort on
their way to join Pontiac, and after being cheered with rum they went
away promising to do what they could to secure peace. A delegation
of chiefs from each tribe in the camp soon appeared before the fort,
accompanied by Frenchmen in order to assure the garrison that they
were on a peaceful mission. They were admitted to the commandant
and they told him that all the chiefs were assembled at the house of
trader Cuillerier, father of the black eyed belle of the settlement, and
that they desired to hold council with a delegation from the fort. They
asked that Captain Campbell and another officer be allowed to come to
the council, and assured Gladwin that a peace could probably be ar-
ranged. By this time the commandant had lost all faith in Indian in-
tegrity and he refused, but Campbell pleaded for the opportunity and
asked that Lieutenant McDougall might be his companion. Gladwin
gave reluctant permission.
Night was falling as the party left the fort. As they were passing-
through the village they saw M. Guoin, who had reported the shorten-
ing of the gun barrels, which was the first intimation of trouble. He
begged the two officers to go back and abandon their hazardous un-
dertaking, and told them that even if the chiefs were acting in good
faith it would be d(;ubtful if they could control the frenz}^ of their fol-
lowers. Campbell laughed at his fears and passed on toward the house
of Cuillerier. A hundred yards further on the peril of the situation
dawned upon them, for a number of warriors landed from their canoes
and ran upon them. The warning shouts of Pontiac and his swift rush
to their rescue, saved them from destruction. Arriving at the house
they found M. Cuillerier seated upon a table in the middle of the largest
room. Antoine Cuillerier had some peculiar traits of character; he
was noted as a vain, conceited man who believed that his mental
and physical gifts were of the finest quality. He habitually wore loud
and showy clothes and a profusion of trinkets and gold lace; his moc-
casins being of fantastic pattern and his sash elaborately decorated with
beads. He had a restless ambition to be considered a leader in the
affairs of the community, and posed as the friend of the Indian and a
181
hater of the English. The latter trait, however, was not publicly dis-
played for very good reasons. It is believed that he was but little
more than a tool of Pontiac in the machinations of that wily warrior.
His house was on the bank of Parent's Creek.
After Campbell and McDougall arrived, Pontiac announced that he
recognized Cuillerier as the father of the settlement, in place of M. Bel-
lestre, until the latter should return. The Indians, he said, would not
tolerate the presence of the British in that territory, and the only way
in which to secure peace was for the garrison to agree to abandon the
fort, and without arms or baggage leave the country under escort.
This announcement appeared to please Cuillerier, who thereupon
shook hands with the British officers, saying: "This is my work; I
have made the best terms I could for you ; I thought that Pontiac
would not be so easy."
The good faith of the French trader in this matter will naturally be
questioned. It is known that he had been a prominent man in the
French settlement and that he naturally longed for a return of the
French to power at Detroit. Ordinary patriotism would inspire such
sentiments. On the other hand he had been on excellent terms with
the British, and the theory set forth in the Elliott manuscript indicates
that his daughter was probably the person who revealed the conspiracy
to Gladwin. He must have known that the Indians were on the war
path, at which time honor and integrity are laid aside by them and
pledges of safe conduct to surrendered prisoners are not regarded. To
accept the terms offered to the garrison, and for the latter to leave De-
troit unarmed, would have invited a wholesale massacre.
Captain Campbell addressed the council, recalling the good will which
he had always shown toward the Indians. He counseled peace and
friendly relations as conducing to trade and the mutual benefit of the
Indians and the British. But he told them he was not the chief and
therefore Major Gladwin must answer. He would bear the message
of Pontiac to the fort and bring back the answer.
No sign of approval followed his remarks and Captain Campbell and
his companion arose to return to the fort. Pontiac stopped them with
the remark: "My father will sleep to-night in the lodges of his red
children." The two British officers then realized that they were
prisoners. They were conducted to the house of M. Meloche, another
French settler, and placed under guard. It is suggested that Gladwin
at this time was holding several Potawatomies in custody, and the
182
Indians spared the lives of the two envoys because they feared retalia-
tion at the fort.
Pontiac's dictum was conveyed to Gladwin next day by a delegation
of Frenchmen, who urged him to accept, but the young commandant
was not to be intimidated, and he told the envoys that he would hold
the fort at all hazards. He wrote a message to General Amherst, in-
forming him of the situation and asking that the necessary supplies be
forwarded in order that the siege might be sustained. This was borne
down the river by the schooner Gladwin. Five canoes filled with
armed Indians put off to board the schooner, and Captain Campbell
was placed in the bow of the foremost canoe to screen the savages, but
he bravely shouted to those on board: "Pay no attention to me; do
your duty." A shot from one of the crew killed a Potawatomie in the
foremost canoe and they then turned back. When they reached the
shore Cuillerier, it is said, jeered at them for their faint-hearted re-
treat. From that time the fort was fully besieged.
Reports of the capture of the forts at Sandusky and St. Joseph and
at the Miami settlement on the Maumee River came to Detroit and nat-
urally tended to dishearten the garrison. On the morning of May 29
ten bateaux were seen coming up the river, and the soldiers rejoiced at
the arrival of supplies and reinforcements. When the boats came
nearer the fort, however, the besieged British saw that their hopes were
vain, for the bateaux were in the hands of the Indians. Lieutenant
Cuyler, who had set out from Niagara in charge of the relief expedi-
tion, had been surprised by a night attack as they were encamped near
Pelee Island in Lake Erie. They had landed on the previous night
about ten o'clock, the men having been kept at the paddles until long
after dark in order that the Indians might not discover their landing
place for the night. Two of the men began to collect dead limbs for a
fire, while the others prepared a place for hanging their camp kettle.
The men in the woods roused a party of Indians, who were following
the canoe expedition on shore, and one of the foragers was killed and
scalped. The other ran into camp and in the midst of the confusion
that followed several were shot down. Lieutenant Cuyler rallied thirty
men about him and held the savages off; some of the others ran to the
bateaux, but there were but two or three men to a boat, and they were
captured before they could get into deep water. Cuyler and his fol-
lowers escaped in the darkness, but the men who fled to the boats were
forced to assist in paddling them to Detroit. As the bateaux arrived
183
just below the fort two soldiers, who were rowing the foremost boat,
resolved to make their escape or die in the attempt. They made a
movement as if to change places in the boat, and each seized his Indian
guard. One of them threw his man into the river; the other rolled in-
to the water in a death grapple with the Indian. The boats were close
to the shore and in shoal water. As the soldier and the Indian strug-
gled to their feet the more active Indian drove his tomahawk into his
adversary's brain, but the other soldier brought down his paddle with
all his might upon the surviving Indian's head, fracturing his skull,
and although he was able to stagger to the shore, he died half an hour
later. The two soldiers in the second boat attacked their guards with
their paddles and drove them into the river. The three desperate men
landed the two boats under the fire of more than sixty Indians, and thus
saved several barrels of pork and other provisions for the hungry gar-
rison. The other eight bateaux were landed at the Indian camp above,
and the captors all got drunk on the rum they found in the stores.
They killed and scalped the soldiers who had not escaped, and sent
their dead bodies, tied to logs, floating past the fort to intimidate the
garrison. Ten days later came Father La Jaunay from Mackinac Isl-
and to tell of the slaughter of that garrison.
Six weeks rolled by and the provisions of the savages were about ex-
hausted, so Pontiac set about obtaining a new supply. The contents
of eight bateaux, and twenty-four cattle killed on He au Cochon,
indicated great consuming powers on the part of the Indians. The
French residents across the river from the fort had fertile farms and a
few cattle, so Pontiac attended mass on the morning of June 26, in the
French chapel of the Huron mission. There were no carriages in the
settlement, but some of the wealthy farmers had rigged easy chairs
with side bars, and seated in these were carried to church in state on
the shoulders of their Pawmee slaves. Pontiac and two of his asso-
ciate chiefs seized three of these rude sedan chairs, which were stand-
ing at the church door, and they were carried about the settlement to
purchase cattle and corn. In imitation of the commandants at the
fort, he gave his note to signify his indebtedness. These promissory
notes were pieces of bi ch bark on which was cut or scratched the
outline of a coon, the chosen totem of Pontiac representing his signa-
ture. He afterward redeemed these pledges in honorable fashion.
With fresh provisions his warriors were encouraged to continue the
siege, and hoping to hasten the capitulation of the fort, Pontiac sent
184
(UWU!
ouTyfcii^^^^t^
T
word to Gladwin that a force of nine hundred warriors was on its way
from Mackinac. When they arrived, he said, he feared he would no
longer be able to control his forces, and he would not be answerable
for the consequences.
In the mean time the houses and barns nearest to the fort had been
fired by red hot shot, and by sallying parties sent out for the purpose,
so that the Indians no longer had shelter for a near approach. The
success of the campaign depended on supplies being delivered to the
garrison. Gladwin answered that he could make no terms with Pontiac
until Captain Campbell and Lieutenant McDougall had been returned
in safety, according to his pledge. Incensed at the determined atti-
tude of the commandant, Pontiac replied that the kettles were heating
to boil the inmates of the fort, and if the two hostages were returned
they would only share the fate reserved for the others. Four days
later, when the hope of the British had almost departed, the schooner
Gladwin sailed up the river with a load of provisions and a force of
fifty soldiers to protect her. The ammunition, which had been almost
exhausted in keeping the savages at a respectful distance, and which
alone prevented the latter from firing the buildings within the fort,
was now replenished. As the Indians returned victorious from the
other captured forts Pontiac was deeply mortified to find that he, the
leader of the great campaign, was the only one who had failed to ac-
complish his purpose. He had one more plan in his busy brain, and
that was to force the neutral French to take up arms and unite with
the savages. He argued that the war was for the purpose of re-
storing the French to power, and in the expectation of success a secret
messenger had been dispatched to the Mississippi valley to bring on a
French commandant named Neyons, from St. Louis, Illinois, to take
charge of the fort at Detroit after it should be taken. The pressure
was strong on the French at Detroit and they knew not which way to
turn, v/hen a copy of the definitive treaty between France and England
arrived at the settlement. This announced that the French king had
abandoned the settlements in the North, and that he acknowledged the
sovereignty of the British crown over the territory. When Gladwin
assembled the French on July 4, 1763, and read the treaty, James Stir-
ling, who afterward married the pretty daughter of Cuillerier, took
service under the commandant, and forty others (mostly French) fol-
lowed his example. Once more the spirits of the garrison arose and a
bold sortie was made to the house of M. Baby, where a quantity of am-
185
munition had been concealed to keep it out of the hands of the Indians.
It was a bold dash, but it was rendered less heroic by an act of barbar-
ism. As the soldiers charged for the house a number of Indians fired
upon them without effect, but in the return volley a young Chippewa
warrior, son of a chief, was killed. Lieutenant Hays then scalped him
at the door of the house, and shook the gory trophy toward the Indian
camp. That barbarous act cost the life of Captain Campbell, who
might otherwise have survived the siege. Lieutenant McDougall and
a trader from Albany named Van Epps, who had been captured on the
river, made their escape, and got safely into the fort. Captain Camp-
bell refused to accompany them, because he was an elderly man and
not fleet of foot, and in waiting for him the other two might sacrifice
their lives. When the Chippewa chief heard of the scalping of his son
he was crazed with passion, and rushing into the lodge where Captain
Campbell was kept, he dragged him out, struck him down with his
tomahawk, and scalped him. Then he cut his heart out and ate it
and afterward cut off his head. The body was finally cut in small
pieces and was boiled and eaten like those of the first victims of the
siege.
This is the report commonly accepted by historians, but according to
the reports submitted by Gladwin to Sir Jeffrey Amherst the captain
was killed under different circumstances, as follows : The Indians had
erected a rude breastwork of small logs near the fort on the night of
July 3, from which they could harass the sentries and the British sharp-
shooters. Soon after it was discovered a sortie was made from the
fort by a company of soldiers and the breastwork was destroyed. A
party of twenty Indians attempted to defend the work, one of whom
was shot dead and two were wounded, " which our people scalped and
cut to pieces," Major Gladwin states in his report. Half an hour
afterward the dead were brought into the house where Captain Camp-
bell was confined. Then the savages stripped the captain and killed
him with shocking barbarity.
The Gladwin and the sloop Beaver were lying in front of the fort on
the night of July 10, threatening with their cannon any war party
which might attempt to reach the fort. To get rid of them the In-
dians, under Pontiac's direction, made huge rafts of logs and piled
upon them masses of bark and brush saturated with pitch. When
these had been lighted they were floated down to the two boats and
threatened their destruction. But the fire rafts were met by boats and
186'
pushed to one side, and a shifting of cables allowed the vessels to
sheer out of harm's way.
It would seem that all the warnings of the past would have led the
soldiery to continue their policy of waiting until the Indians would
become discouraged and abandon the siege. So long as the garrison
could be provisioned and supplied with ammunition it was evident that
the fort was safe. But the desire to make a record for heroism often
leads to sacrifice of life, and the siege of Pontiac was not to pass
without its slaughter. Captain Dalzell arrived from Niagara with a
force of 260 men, on July 29, and General Amherst had given him
orders to put an end to the siege. The boats of the flotilla made a fine
show on the river as they came on that sunny morning with their
regularly dipping oars, and those who were not rowing awoke the
echoes with volleys of musketry. Dalzell was anxious to go out and
give the Indians battle, but Gladwin advised him to give up that idea,
as the Indians were very numerous, and the chances were that an
attacking party would be flanked and ambushed with disastrous re-
sults. Dalzell, however, was hot headed and impatient, and said that
if he was not allowed to go out and accomplish something, after bring-
ing his regiment two hundred miles, he might as well return at once.
Gladwin gave reluctant consent, but warned Dalzell to proceed with
great caution, and have his skirmish line well advanced to discover any
attempt at an ambush. It is supposed that some of the French warned
Pontiac of the intended sortie, for that able warrior prepared to
destroy the attacking party.
Just before daybreak on July 31, Dalzell marched quietly out of the
fort at the head of 250 men ; they took their way along the ridge about
on a line with Jefferson avenue. The morning birds were beginning
their songs as they came to the small ravine of Parent's Creek, about a
mile and a half east of the fort. This stream, which had its source
three miles to the northward, had in the lapse of ages furrowed out a
little gorge, the last remnant of which is still preserved within the limits
of Elmwood Cemetery. All the rest has been filled up and obliterated
by the march of public improvements. A rude bridge crossed the creek
near where the Michigan Stove Works now stands on Jefferson avenue.
Day had not yet broken when the skirmishers, numbering twenty-five
men, walked across the bridge. Not a soimd broke the silence of the
forest except the measured tread of the soldiers and the clank of their
accoutrements. Suddenly the side of the ravine was a blaze of fire and
187
a storm of bullets swept the bridge. Half the skirmishers fell where
they stood, and most of the others were wounded. Dalzell was brave
and he charged across the bridge with the main body of his men in
close order, offering a fine target for his unseen foes. The bridge was
left covered with dead bodies. Wherever he saw flashes of fire and
heard the sound of musketry Dalzell charged with the idea of driving
out the Indians and cutting them down, but he never came to close
quarters, and presently as day broke, he found himself surrounded by
a multitude of savages His only hope of escape was to cut his way
back to the bridge and this he did, his soldiers falling all around him.
He retreated toward the fort, but every woodpile, farmhouse and out-
building was an ambush. As they ran past an excavation for a cellar
it belched fire, and a number of men fell to be butchered and scalped
by the pursuing host. When the soldiers grew panic stricken Dalzell
brought them to their senses by beating them with the flat of his sword.
Major Rogers, who had received the surrender of Detroit, saw a house
on the way to the fort belching fire and showering bullets from every
window. At the head of his bold rangers he burst the doors and the
Indians leaped out of the windows taking to the trees aud continuing
their fire. Captain Gray fell riddled with bullets. Dalzell, fatally
wounded, tried to help a wounded sergeant toward the fort, but both
went down under the ceaseless fire. A painted savage ran up to the
bleeding body of Captain Gray and cut his heart out. But for the cool-
ness of Major Rogers, who succeeded to the command, not a man
would have lived to reach the fort. When escape was cut off he took
refuge with the remnant of his followers in the Jacques Campau house,
which was of unusual strength, and managed to keep the enemy at a
distance until word could be sent to the fort. The boats, armed with
swivel guns, put off from the fort, and under protection of their fire,
Rogers made his way back with ninety men. This was all that was
left of the 250 who went out under Dalzell. It is said that less than a
score of Indians were killed during the fight.
The river and ravine were then christened Bloody Run, and until the
summer of 1893 a scarred and bullet pierced tree was preserved on the
ground by an iron railing, the last silent witness of the slaughter.
That summer it was cut down, and now no living thing remains which
existed at the time of that battle.
Pontiac was quick to see that his only hope of subduing the fort was
to cut off communication with the outside world, and this he deter-
188
mined to accomplish. The schooner Gladwin was becalmed off Fighting
Island on the evening of September 4, as she was on her way np the
river. She was compelled to anchor, and the crew of twelve men had
to risk their lives in an exposed position where the savages might
attack in force under cover of darkness. In the dead of the night a
fleet of canoes was discovered almost upon the vessel, and there was
but time for one exchange of shots before a large force of savages
boarded the vessel. Commander Horst had fallen at the first fire.
Nothing but death by torture confronted the seven survivors, and this
they immediately realized. " Fire the magazine! " shouted Mate Ja-
cobs. His order was understood by the Indians, and they precipitated
themselves into the river. The rest of the night was passed without
molestation, and the Gladwin made her way to the fort next morning.
This failure dampened the ardor of the Indians, but the last act which
would bring about peace was about to take place. General Amherst
was of the opinion that the French had a sinister influence upon the
Indians, and that they were at the bottom of the Pontiac trouble. He
wrote a vigorous letter to M. Neyons, commandant of the French in
the Illinois region, and to prevent serious complications with the Eng-
lish government, Neyons wrote to Detroit warning the settlers and In-
dians that peace had been declared between the English and the French,
and that the two kings desired no further warfare. The shedding of
blood and all evil counsels must stop, he said, because under the peace
regulations the Indians could not attack one nationality without offend-
ing the other. This was read to the French citizens of Detroit, who
promptly acknowledged the right of the English to possession.
Pontiac abandoned hope October 12, and sued for peace, but Major
Gladwin merely agreed to a truce until orders could be received from
General Amherst. There was no profit to be gained by the British in
prosecuting the war. The Indians were hard to strike owing to their
superior knowledge of the country, and their destruction would ruin
the peltry trade and stop the consumption of large quantities of goods
that were sold to the outposts. Gladwin was bitter against the French,
who in his judgment were far from blameless. In regard to the In
dians he wrote his superior: "They have lost between eighty and
ninety of their warriors, but if your excellency still intends to punish
them for their barbarities it may be easier done, without any expense
to the crown, by permitting a free sale of rum, which will destroy more
effectually than fire and sword. But, on the contrary, if you intend to
189
accommodate matters in the spring, which I hope yon will for the
above reasons, it may be necessary to send up Sir William Johnson."
The letter is a tribute to the wisdom of Sir William as being the man
best adapted for handling the Indians. After more than five months
of confinement and constant danger, after weeks of short rations, with
starvation apparently near at hand, the beleaguered garrison marched
out upon the green sward of the outer village with glad hearts. The
siege had lasted 153 days.
CHAPTER XXIV.
Detroit was Saved by Pretty Angelique Cuillerier Beaubien — The Belle of the
French Settlement Learns of Pontiac's Treachery — She Tells Her Lover, James
Sterling, and Sterling Informs Gladwin — 1763.
Historians who have written the story of Pontiac's conspiracy have
accepted as a plausible theory a time-honored tradition which has no
foundation in fact. The Ojibway maiden Catherine is unquestionably
a myth. Recent discoveries show beyond doubt that the information
came from Angelique Cuillerier, and that her lover, James Sterling,
who later became her husband, waS the actual informant.
In the Canadian archives. Series B, Vol. 70, page 214, is a letter
from Major Henry Bassett, British commandant at Detroit in 1773, to
Sir Frederick Haldimand, governor-general of Canada. After report-
ing to his chief various matters concerning the several tribes of Indians
who lived about Detroit, Major Bassett says:
" I have received an account from the Wabash Indians, that near the Ohio some
Indians fell in with four English traders who had fifteen horses loaded with goods,
and that they have scalped the traders and taken the horses and goods. This is not
confirmed, although the Hurons have mentioned it to me, and they are seldom out.
I don't think the Indians are at present much to be trusted. They seem very rest-
less, as you will perceive by the inclosed report, which I received from the Indians
in council ready wrote in French, and translated by Mr. James Sterling for me. I
believe some French traders amongst them help to stir them up.
" For want of a civil officer here the commanding officer is very much employed
with the disputes which must naturally happen between the inhabitants. I am so
uncomfortable as not to speak French, or understand it sufficiently without an inter-
preter. Hitherto I have been under obligations to Mr. Sterling, merchant, who has
been ready on all occasions to attend, and has wrote and answered all my French
190
letters without any gratuity. A French interpreter where the inhabitants amount to
near 1,300 souls, I should conceive, with submission to your excellency, government
would not object to ; more particularly as I am informed one is paid at the Illinois
settlements. Should your excellency allow me one here, I beg leave to recommend
Mr. James Sterling, who is the first merchant at this place, and a gentleman of good
character during the late Indian war. Through a lady whom he then courted,
from whom he had the best information, he was in part a means to save this gar-
rison. This gentleman is now married to that lady and is connected with the best
part of this settlement ; has more to say with them than any one else here. The In-
dians can't well begin hostilities without his having information of their designs. If
your excellency disproves of adding third interpreter, mine for the Hurons is a
drunken, idle fellow scarcely worth the keeping except out of charity. If your ex-
cellency will appoint Mr. Sterling both French and Huron interpreter, he'll oblige
himself to find a proper person for that nation.
" Mr. Sterling tells me he has the honor to be known to your excellency as com-
missary of provisions in the year 1759 at Oswego, and at Fort Augustus in 1760.
At his earnest request I have taken the liberty to inclose to your excellency a
memorial from him. I have the honor to be with very great respect,
"Your Excellency's very obedient and humble servant,
"H. Bassett, Major of the 10th Reg't."
In this and foregoing correspondence is a picture of a very zealous,
and also a very nervous officer. He is in command of a limited force
of men in a region which is several hundred miles from military sup-
port. The nearest relief, in case of an unexpected attack, is Niagara,
two hundred miles away, where there is but a mere handful of soldiers.
About him are several tribes of Indians, who can muster 1,500 war-
riors, and they are constantly reminding him that they prefer the
French to the English rule. They come to Detroit and hold excited
councils with the French, at which the British are denounced as in-
truders and interlopers. The only means of keeping in touch with
them and watching their movements is by the courtesy of the versatile
Scotch merchant, James Sterling, who takes notes of their utterances
and those of the French traders, and translates them to the command-
dant in the privacy of his quarters. Sterling saved the garrison by re-
vealing Pontiac's plot in May, 1763, and he got his information through
Mile. Cuillerier, his sweetheart. The missing link in the chain of evi-
dence is the manner in which Mile. Angelique Cuillerier obtained the
information. In the foregoing pages it has been shown that Antoine
Cuillerier, her father, was in more than suspicious intimacy with Pon-
tiac. At the conference in the Cuillerier cabin old Antoine was the
central figure. Seated in a chair which had been placed on the family
table, and wearing a tall hat rigged out fantastically in gold braid and
191
gay ribbons, he was recognized by Pontiac as the head of the white
colony. When Pontiac told the English officers that all the English
must depart from Detroit, Caillerier urged the acceptance of Pontiac's
pledge of safe conduct, saying it was the best terms he had been able
to obtain for the British. The inference is that Cuillerier had previ-
ously been plotting with the Indians for the removal of the British,
peaceably if possible, but to get rid of them and restore French rule in
Detroit at any cost. It is easily possible that the fair daughter, Ange-
lique, would be prompted by a woman's curiosity during these secret
meetings, and, while Pontiac and her father were plotting in the great
living room down stairs, she was probably listening with attentive ear
at the opening in the loft, where the younger members of the house-
hold usually slept. The plots were of such a nature that she would
naturally be touched with a woman's tender sympathy for the doomed.
Further than this, Sterling, her lover, was a Briton born. His sym-
pathies would naturally be with his countrymen rather than with the
French and Indians, a condition which would undoubtedly influence his
sweetheart.
Nine years after Pontiac's failure, Jacques Campau, whose house
gave shelter to the soldiers retreating from Bloody Run, sent a memo-
rial to the king of England asking for a grant of land of twelve arpents
frontage on the river, nearly opposite the foot of Belle Isle. He stated
that 250 soldiers had found refuge in his house during the day of Dal-
zell's disastrous battle, but instead of being grateful for the shelter af-
forded them for several hours, and refreshments given by the owner,
they robbed his house of $300 worth of its furnishings. For this they
had been court martialed by Gladwin, but the loser was not reimbursed.
Campau accepted a captain's commission under Gladwin and went to
Mackinaw with 120 men. He succeeded in pacifying two tribes of
hostile Indians, and spent ten weeks there cutting wood and preparing
the post for the winter, but he never received a cent of pay and all his
appeals to the commandant were unsuccessful.
Pontiac abandoned all hope of driving the British out of the West,
but he was regarded as a dangerous character by the settlers in case of
trouble between England and France. In such a case he no doubt
would have renewed hostilities in behalf of the French. So distasteful
was the presence of the English to him that he first retired to the Mau-
mee valley, and later made his way west to the French settlements of
the Mississippi valley. He did not die in battle as his martial spirit
192
WILLIAM H. TEFFT.
would have chosen. He went to visit a French friend at St. Louis, Mo.,
then in the possession of the French, where he adopted the dress of a
French military officer. One day an English trader named Wilkinson,
who had a grudge against the chief, offered an Illinois Indian a barrel
of rum if he would waylay and kill Pontiac. The mercenary followed
his victim into the woods and shot him dead, and thus earned his re-
ward, but the vengeance of Pontiac's followers afterward resulted in
the destruction of the tribe of the Illinois. Pontiac was buried some-
where within the present limits of St. Louis with military honors, but
no stone marks the spot and it will probably never be discovered.
Not a man in the garrison at Detroit cared to remain longer amid the
scenes of their past sufferings, and the report that Major Wilkins was
on his way from Niagara with a flotilla of canoes, containing a large
force of men, was received with joy. They did not arrive as expected,
and fears were entertained for their safety. These fears were confirmed
about November 12, when two friendly Indians arrived, bearing a dis-
patch from Major Wilkins, stating that his fleet had met disaster in a
sudden storm on Lake Erie and that seventy of his men had been lost.
Their stores and ammunition had been sacrificed to keep the boats
afloat, and the party had been compelled to put back to Niagara. It
was not until August, 1764, that Colonel Bradstreet came from the east
with a body of soldiers, and relieved Gladwin of the post which he had
grown to dislike. Major Gladwin, although not lacking in bravery,
wanted no more of life in the wilderness. He went to England, after
resigning his commission, and spent the rest of his days with his wife
and children.
193
CHAPTER XXV.
The British Home Government Neglects the Colonies and Detroit Languishes as
Settlement— The Selfish Policy of the British Tradesmen Was the Cause of Most of
the Colonial Troubles— 1763-1773.
Detroit, notwithstanding the restriction on trade, grew rapidly in
population and prosperity during the ten years that succeeded the Pon-
tiac war. Under British rule it became an emporium of a vast trade
in furs, and the wealth that gave leisure for cultivation soon brought
its best society to a condition of refinement which rivaled that of the
seaboard cities. The rough Indian trader was there, scarcely more re-
fined than the imtutored savage, but mingling with him was the cul-
tured British officer and the aristocratic French resident, who had be-
come rich by trade and the growth in value of his landed possessions.
The extent of the trade in furs, considering that the peltries were car-
ried over the lakes eastward altogether in birch bark canoes, was a
thing that strikes with astonishment. When the English took posses-
sion in 1760, they found in storage furs to the value of half a million
dollars. Soon the trade increased so that as many as two hundred
thousand beaver skins were shipped in a single year. Crowds of In-
dians in their brightly painted bark canoes were constantly coming and
going upon the river, bringing the peltries of the deer, the otter and
the beaver, and carrying away the numerous articles of civilized pro-
duction which they received in exchange, for most of the Indian trade
was still barter. Often these gaudy crafts completely lined the river
bank, and the vicinity of the fort became the mart of a thriving com-
merce. The canoes were both shop and dwelling house for the abo-
rigines. In them, turned bottom up, and slightly canted to one side
to allow of an easy entrance, whole families lived by day and lodged
by night. These consisted of the copper-colored brave and his dusky
mate, with the small papoose strapped to a board at her back, and an
indefinite number of " little Injun " boys and girls, rolling on the sand,
with only a raiment of bear's grease to protect them from the swarm of
insects that infested the quarters. Here the head of the house dis-
194
played his wares — peltries, baskets, brooms, mococks of sugar and
moccasins — and exhibited a keenness in bargaining fully equal to that
of his more civilized white brother. Lovers of the picturesque no
doubt enjoyed the traffic, if not over fastidious in the matter of dirt.
John Bradstreet, the new commandant, was a man of little principle,
and he made a practice of beguiling the Indians into treaties which
they did not well understand, and into giving grants of land which
were fraudulently obtained. These were the cause of much trouble in
later years.
As soon as the treaty of Paris was ratified, steps were taken to estab-
lish some form of local government in the territory acquired by the
treaty. This was done at the urgent appeal of the settlers, who were
tired of military rule. A portion of the country, later known as Lower
Canada, was placed under the jurisdiction of a governor and council, to
whom was delegated power to establish courts in conformity with the
the English law, and appeals were to be made to the privy council.
Western Canada, including the present province of Ontario, had not
been ceded by the Indians, and purchases of land from the Indians were
forbidden except by treaty through the government. Detroit was
therefore left without courts of law, and for twelve years after the date
of the treaty it was like the French regime, and had no system of gov-
ernment other than the military rule of the commandant and his
appointees. Detroit was annexed to the province of Quebec in April,
1775. One of the first acts under the administration of Bradstreet was
a deal with the Indians by which they ceded to the white settlers a
strip of land beginning a short distance west of the fort and continuing
along the river as far as Lake St. Clair. Then followed a long
conflict of schemes for private interest which retarded the growth of
the colony. Commandants, officers and traders seem to have been
ruled by mercenary motives, and the merchants and manufacturers in
England were as selfish as the others. Fur traders bitterly opposed
the settling of the country, because the establishing of farmers
throughout the territory would lead to an extermination of the fur-
bearing animals, and their very profitable calling would be affected.
Their opposition was backed by the tradesmen of England, who argued
that the development of the country would eventually lead to local
manufactures and their market would thus be in danger of destruction.
All the arguments of the more intelligent leaders could not convince
the tradesmen that the development of the western world would en-
195
large instead of restrict their trade. This war of selfish interests con-
tinued all over the British colonies until the American Revolution
broke out, and was, in fact, the great cause of precipitating it. The
tradesmen appeared to control, for the power to grant lands for farm-
ing purposes was taken away from the local commandant and vested in
the governor at Montreal, and private purchases from Indians were
made illegal. The most the commandant could do was to recommend
certain grants.
In 1765, soon after the British were well established at Detroit, the
the first money began to circulate, and it was known as New York cur-
rency. With the advent of money, the payment of taxes in peltries
and other local produce was gradually discontinued. For two years
after the treaty had been completed the British practically abandoned
Mackinaw, and the place was occupied by a village of Chippewas.
Major Robert Rogers was sent to the command of Mackinac in 1765,
and he immediately began to scheme for his own advancement. He
was soon detected in dealing with the Indians for private grants of
lands, by making lavish presents and promising many things which he
did not perform. The true purport of his scheme was never fully as-
certained. He may have learned that there were rich deposits of cop-
per in the region of the upper peninsula, and have planned to secure a
title to them in defiance of the crown. He was suspected of acting as
an agent of either the French or the Spanish government, for the pur-
pose of obtaining possession of the Northwest, but the latter sus-
picion does not appear to be well founded. Both these governments
must have known that such a scheme would stir the British to war
against them, and each had been exhausted with wars in Europe. The
most probable case is that Rogers was planning to establish himself as
a feudal lord among the Indians of the North. He was arrested and
taken to Montreal, where he was tried by court-martial on a charge of
treason, but the charge could not be sustained and Rogers was dis-
charged. The chief evidence against him was an intercepted letter
written by Colonel Hopkins, a British officer, who had taken service
with the French, which urged Rogers to get the good-will of the In-
dians, and to use his influence toward securing the independence of the
colonies. Hopkins was in the French service because of real or
fancied wrongs he had sustained at the hands of his own government,
and this early propagator of revolution was no doubt seeking a per-
sonal revenge against the government under which he had been born.
196
France had ceded her possessions on the upper Mississippi and all of
Louisiana to Spain, and it was merely surmised that Rogers might be
acting for one of these powers.
As the commandants at Detroit had many duties and responsibilities,
and as there was much litigation in petty civil cases among the settlers,
it became necessary to deputize some person with authority to hear and
adjust such cases. Capt. George Turnbull, commandant, in 1767, is-
sued a warrant to a merchant named Philip Dejean, who had been a
bankrupt in Montreal, authorizing him to take evidence under oath and
to hold tribunals of arbitration for the settlement of disputes. Dejean
was also authorized to draw all legal instruments and to conduct pub-
lic sales. The office combined the duties of a justice of the peace, no-
tary and sheriff, and Dejean was known as the chief justice of Detroit.
This authority was issued April 24, 1767, and it was renewed by Major
Robert Bayard when he succeeded to the command on July 28, of the
same year. Persons locked up for either debt or misdemeanor were
required to pay one dollar on being liberated. A tariff regulation was
instituted about the same time. Non-residents who brought boatloads
of merchandise to Detroit were assessed an entrance fee of two dollars
for each boat. The mild rule of the French regime had given way to
a system of petty despotism, and this continued until the banner of
England was replaced at Detroit by the stars and stripes The governor-
general of Canada was supposed to be in control, but most of the au-
thority was deputized to the resident commandants, and the rule of the
latter was almost absolute. In the summer of 1771 Michael Due, a
resident of Detroit, murdered a voyageur named Tobias Isenhart, pre-
sumably for his money. Due was examined before Justice Dejean,
sent to Quebec for trial, and was subseqently hanged at Montreal.
The presence of copper in northern Michigan and in the islands of
Lake Superior was known to the French at a very early day, but sev-
eral circumstances caused these mineral deposits to be neglected. The
Jesuit fathers were more interested in saving souls than in making
fortunes for adventurers, and the fur traders could carry on their busi-
ness wnth a small capital and make rich profits, while a heavy in-
vestment of capital was needed to develop a mine and erect the neces-
sary smelting works. There was one trader, however, of a different
opinion, the same Alexander Henry who so narrowly escaped destruc-
tion at the time of the massacre at Mackinaw. He made an extended'
exploration along the eastern shore of Lake Superior in 1770; even
197
putting off from the main land to Michipicoten and the more remote
Caribou Island. Private Norburg of the Royal American Regiment,
and several other adventurous spirits accompanied him, and Norburg
made the first discovery of silver ore. While on this trip he picked up
a small boulder, rich in silver, weighing about eight pounds, vi^hich was
sent to England for assay. On his return Henry told of a mass of
rock copper which he had discovered on the surface of the earth and
from which he had chopped a mass weighing about one hundred
pounds. In 1773 he induced Sir William Johnson, the Indian agent,
to unite with him for the development of a mine near Ontonagon
River, but from the difficulty of raising the ore without expensive
machinery, and the lack of a smelting plant, the enterprise was soon
abandoned. The duke of Gloucester, Sir Samuel Tutchet, and several
other capitalists were interested, but after experiments they found that
profits could not be realized. At this time, 1770, the Hudson Bay
Company, which had received its charter from Charles II in 1669, after
conducting a profitable and almost exclusive fur trade for more than a
century, found a rival in the field known as the Northwest Company.
Individual traders also engaged in the fur trade, and for a long time
there was much lawlessness among the coiireurs of the rival companies.
These coiireurs stopped at no device to induce the Indian to trade with
their respective employers, or to injure that of their competitors.
Serious troubles were threatened, but they were averted by Lord Sel-
kirk, who, by a clever bit of financiering, united the interests of the
two companies, and thereafter the consolidated Hudson Bay Company,
being in complete control, managed to keep settlers out of the fur
countr)'- for many years.
In the winter of 1773 a trader named McDowell, from Pittsburg,
who was stopping in a house near the fort, refused to sell rum to an
Indian. The Indian went outside of the house, and, poking his gun
through the window, shot McDowell dead as he sat before the fire.
This caused Major Bassett to write to Governor William Tryon, pro-
testing against the introduction of rum from Albany and Canada.
' ' Trading will never be safe while it continues, " said he ; " the leading
chiefs complain that the English are killing all their young men with
spirits. They purchase poison instead of blankets and the necessaries
of life. They say they lose more young men by rum than they lose by
war. It is not in the power of the commandant at this post to prevent,
for the traders land it down the river, and have a thousand tricks to
198
deceive the commandant and cheat the poor savages. The traders are
generally the outcasts of all nations and the refuse of mankind. The
commandant at Detroit has no power to punish them, but they should
be made subject to him while at this post. They trade on the river
bank, within three miles of the post, and cheat the Indians outrageous-
ly. They lodge in French houses while so doing, and conceal their
peltry there until they can slip it into the fort unobserved. This prac-
tice cannot be prevented until the commandant has authority to. lock
these fellows up and send them back to New York or to Canada. "
Even Major Bassett had his enemies among the settlers. In 1773 a
strip of land, known as the King's Domain, covered twelve acres in
front of the fort and thirty acres back. The king's garden was located
in this tract on the east side of the fort. Major Bassett built a fence
around a small piece of ground back of the king's garden, making a
pasture for his horse, and the residents immediately made loud com-
plaints that he was taking a part of the common. He wrote to Quebec
for authority to inclose all of the king's domain of fortj^-two acres,
which was then used as a cow and sheep pasture by the residents, say-
ing that it would be valuable ground in a few years ; but the residents
immediately trumped up charges that he was trying to secure the land
for his private use. It would seem that there was a lack of skilled arti-
sans even at this period, for the letter states that there are but three
" joyners " among the soldiers, and " they are the worst the commandant
ever saw; a carpenter cannot be had for a dollar a day and his keep."
In 1774 John Logan, the celebrated Cayuga chief, came to Detroit.
Early in that year several members of his family had been killed by
traders at his home on the Muskingum, in the southeast portion of Ohio.
He had previously been friendly to the settlers, but after this terrible
bereavement he took the warpath and killed many of the whites. This
gave rise to what is known as Lord Dunmore's war, which began and
terminated in 1774, At the decisive battle of Point Pleasant the In-
dians were defeated and they all sued for peace except Logan, who
came to Detroit. He was requested to come to Chillicothe, where a
treaty was to be made, but he refused, and then, it is said, delivered
the speech which ever school boy knows. To drown his trouble he
took to drink and in a short time became a drunkard. One day, in
1780, while drunk, he felled his wife, and, supposing he had killed her,
fled from Detroit and was making his way to Sandusky, when he was
overtaken near the shore of Lake Erie by a party of friendly Indians.
199
Supposing that they were avengers on his trail he shot at them, and
was killed by his relative, Tod-hah-dohs, in self defense.
In 1774 a law known as the Quebec act was passed by the English
parliament for the government of all the British colonies west of New
York, north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi. It was an
act which established a regime something between a feudal system and
a despotism. It was evidently the intention to deprive the settlers of
the benefits of the English law, so that life in the West would be dis-
tasteful to colonists and prevent them from filling up the countr}'. In
substance, the act placed the settlers under the old French law of the
province, so far as civil matters were concerned, and under the Eng-
lish law in criminal cases. No man in parliament nor in the colonies
knew what the French colonial law had been, because no special code
had ever been enacted for the colonies; and the commandants and gov-
ernors had been the law and the supreme court. This law was one of
the British offenses against the American colonists which led to the
Revolution. Allusion is made to it in the Declaration of Independ-
ence, which declares that the crown had abolished "the free syst^em of
English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbi-
trary government so as to render it an example and a fit instrument for
introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies." In spite of the
efforts of Chatham and Camden, who were ever the friends of liberty
and justice, the English parliament passed this obnoxious act. Some
of the leaders admitted its true purpose, holding that the colonists had
few rights which the government was bound to respect, and that the
French settlers had none. All of the oppression of the crown did not
suffice to keep settlers out of the West, and three years after the
Pontiac war there was a string of settlers' cabins, nearly all French,
extending for twenty miles along Detroit River and Lake St. Clair, and
the sites of these early settlements may be located at the present day
by the groups of ancient French pear trees which are to be found at
various points between Grosse Isle and Mt. Clemens. The log cabins
have disappeared, but some of the pear trees which once grew about
their doors still bear fruit for the benefit of the present generation.
200
EDWIN S. BARBOUR.
CHAPTER XXVI.
Obstructive Legislation and Excessive Taxation Breed Discontent — New Eng-
land Settlers Rise in Rebellion — Detroit Under Lieut.-Gov. Henry Hamilton Be-
comes a Fire in the Rear — The "Great Hairbuyer" and His Corrupt Rule — 1773-
1775.
In anticipation of trouble with the colonists of the East, the fort at
Detroit was strengthened in 1775 and afterward kept in good repair.
Even before the war of the Revolution the borders of Ohio and
Pennsylvania were filled with an admixture of adventurous pioneers
and bold desperadoes. The former attempted to found settlements and
till the soil; the latter preyed upon the Indians, hunting them like
wild beasts and robbing their villages. They were as cruel as the sav-
ages and usually scalped their victims. Then the Indians would re-
taliate by murdering the settlers and the latter were in constant peril.
It frequently became necessary for the settlers to organize sinall war
parties, sally forth and drive the Indians back in order to secure peace
while they planted and harvested their crops. Forays were constantly
made across the Ohio River into Kentucky, where the Virginians were
extending their settlements, while the Pennsylvanians extended their
colonies westward from Fort Pitt or Pittsburg. Matters became so bad
that Lord Dunmore, governor of Virginia, raised a small army and
placed it in charge of General Lewis at Fort Pitt, from which point he
made campaigns against the Indians of the Ohio valley. As soon as
the Revolution was on in the East, the British began to stir up the In-
dians against the American settlers on the border. They told the sav-
ages that the Americans were lawless marauders who delighted in
murder, and who were plotting against the life of their father, the
great king. If they were permitted to invade the West they would
seize Detroit and the Ohio country, and murder all the residents. At
first the French were prejudiced as well as the Indians. It required
but a little rum and a few presents to instigate the Indians to massacre
the American settlers wherever they were to be found on the border.
No sooner had it become evident that the American colonists intended
201
to make a stand for their rights than Great Britain began to prepare for
the collision.
At the very outset the British planned to strengthen their hold in the
West, so that they would be able to attack the colonists from their
western frontier as well as from the seaboard. Three lieutenant-gov-
ernors were appointed in pursuance of this scheme. Capt. Henry
Hamilton was appointed to the office at Detroit, Capt. Patrick Sinclair
to Mackinaw, and Capt. Edward Abbott to Fort Sackville at Vincennes.
Earl Dartmouth, the colonial secretary, made these appointments, but
he did not clearly define the functions of the lieutenant-governors and
the commandants at the posts, so that a series of quarrels occurred at
each place over questions of authority. Each of the appointees had
more liking for the perquisites and salary of the respective posts than for
the duties, and each laid claim to the revenues dating from May 1,
1775, although they did not go to their commands until six months
later. Hamilton, in fact, took all the revenues of the post and inaugu-
rated a system of plunder with the notorious "Chief Justice" Philip
Dejean as his accomplice. As local magistrate the lieutenant-governor
had jurisdiction over petty civil cases only. All criminal cases were
under jurisdiction of the court at Quebec. Hamilton, through his ally
Dejean, abused his authority, oppressed the debtors, foreclosed mort-
gages in summary fashion and bled the people to the limit by means
of fines. Jonas Schindler, a traveling jeweler from Montreal, was
charged with selling alloyed silver for pure metal, but a jury acquitted
him. In spite of this acquittal Hamilton ordered Schindler to be
dressed in fantastic fashion and drummed out of town, and he was
marched through all the public streets, preceded by a drum corps.
Captain Lord, the commandant, was indignant at this breach of justice
When the drum corps and the abused Schindler came to the gate of
the inner fort, Lord barred the way and said that he was in command
of the fort and would permit no such outrage to be perpetrated on
ground where he held command. A man named Joseph Hecker mur-
dered Moran, his brother-in-law, and according to law he should have
been examined and then sent to Quebec for trial, but Dejean, with
Hamilton's sanction, tried and convicted the culprit and hanged him at
Detroit. Jean Constanciau, a French resident, and a negress named
Ann Wiley, were convicted of robbing a store of furs and other goods.
Dejean tried them and sentenced them to be hanged, but not a man in
Detroit could be found to execute the sentence. In this emergency
202
Hamilton offered the negress her freedom and full pardon if she would
hang the Frenchman, and she consented. The job was done in bung-
ling fashion and the unfortunate thief was slowly strangled. The
records of these proceedings were suppressed by Dejean, and it was four
years later when the reports of their doings came to the governor-
general at Quebec Dejean appears to have been a man without
scruples. Through some mysterious influence which has never been
understood he appeared to enjoy the protection of the commandants,
who made him the legal factotum of the post, with supreme power in
civil cases. The colonists were bitterly opposed to him, and they drew
up a long petition asking for his removal on the ground that he was ex-
tortionate in his charges for legal services, merciless in his fines, and
dishonest generally, showing favors to his friends and visiting his
judicial wrath upon his opponents. The petition, which was forward-
ed to the governor-general, was signed by nearly every white resident
at Detroit. But Dejean was not removed and he remained in power
eleven years. It is probable that his remarkable influence was due
to a tacit partnership with each succeeding commandant, and that he
divided with them the spoils of his office. Among the Canadian
archives pertaining to Detroit is a record of a grand jury investigation
held in the Court of King's Bench at Montreal, September 7, 1778.
The investigation resulted in an indictment against Philip Dejean, who
at various times during the years 1775 and 1776 was charged with com-
mitting "divers unjust and illegal tyrannical and felonious acts con-
trary to good government." Lieutenant-Governor Henry Hamilton,
having knowledge of these transactions at the time, was also indicted.
When the officers came to Detroit to arrest them both men were at
Vincennes, and when they returned to British soil in 1780, after their
captivity, the case was not pressed.
203
CHAPTER XXVII.
Hamilton Arms the Indians and Sets Them on the Ohio Settlers— Human Scalps
luring /^l Each in the Detroit Commandant's Office — Philip Dejean, Hamilton's
Unscrupulous "Chief Justice" — 1776-1777.
When the Revolution had begun in earnest Detroit became a center
of activity, and although the rough edges of battle never reached the
settlement, the post played a most important part in the war on the
borders. Hamilton wanted to employ the Indians as a fire-in-the-rear
with which to gall the colonists of the East, but Sir Guy Carleton,
governor-general, opposed the proposition, because he knew that the
savages could not be controlled, and that they would inflict awful bar
barities upon the helpless and inoffensive as well as upon prisoners of
war. He was over-ruled by Lord George Germain, who wrote to him
saying that " Divine Providence had placed the Indians in the hands
of Great Britain as fitting instruments for punishing the rebels."
Nothing could be done with the Indians without rum, presents and
feasting, so rum came into Detroit in great quantities for free distri-
bution among the savages. Barbecues were held at which their glut-
tonous appetites were sated, and rifles, scalping knives with crimson
handles, powder, ball and hatchets were distributed with a lavish hand.
Public mass meetings were held, at which the Indians were told that
the Americans were a dangerous and wicked people, who conspired
against their great father the king, and who would drive the Indians
out of the country and seize all their lands, unless the Indians would
aid the British in exterminating those along the border. Weapons
were presented with a show of formality, which helped to captivate the
Indians. Hamilton would clasp hands with a savage chief and grasp-
ing the scalping knife or hatchet, would say: " We are friends in peace
and in war; your enemies are our enemies, and we will work together
for their destruction. The great Manitou will aid you when you go
forth with your father's weapons." At a barbecue when several hun-
dred Indians would be seated in a great circle about a roasted ox, the
head of the ox would be set on a pole and a hatchet would be driven
204
into the skull. Then bearers would march around the circle with this
trophy representing the head of an American, and Hamilton would fol-
low it chanting- a war song in Indian fashion. Captain Lord, the com-
mandant, was constantly quarreling with Hamilton over the propriety
of such proceedings, and he was finally sent away to Niagara. Capt.
Richard Beranger Lernoult was transferred from Niagara to Detroit,
and was made a major in the summer of 1779. Indians would gather
at Detroit by the thousand, but it was impossible to get them to make
raids against the American settlers unless they were accompanied by
British leaders. They preferred to idle about the post, drinking rum
and eating roast ox, rather than undergo the privations of campaign-
ing. They were soon consuming forty barrels of rum a month at De-
troit, and the quantity was later increased to sixty barrels. Prisoners
were troublesome, as they involved much expense for their keeping, as
they had to be sent to Montreal or Quebec for confinement. Hamilton
instructed the Indians that scalps would be less troublesome than pris-
oners, and they were quick to take the hint. From the beginning of
the war Detroit was a great rendezvous, and the formal councils of the
tribes with the military authorities were of almost daily occurrence.
Then would follow the distribution of presents consisting of guns,
powder, lead, provisions, cloth for the squaws and children, and rum.
When a large bod}^ of savages had been worked up to a fighting frenzy,
they would set out for the Ohio, Pennsylvania or Virginia wilderness,
led either by the three Girty brothers, Simon, James and George,
Capt. Henry Bird, John Butler, and William Caldwell, of the regulars,
or Captains Alexander McKee, Mathew Elliott, Chene, Dequindre, or
La Motte, of the Indian and French militia. Arrived at the American
settlements, these bands always indulged in a general massacre. Then
they would return to Detroit, the braves carrying long poles on which
gory scalps were strung. Their appearance was greeted with cheers
and they were received as conquering heroes. After receiving liberal
rewards for their scalps, and rum enough for a wild debauch, fresh
supplies of ammunition would be dealt out and they would go out for
another raid.
As Detroit was the key to the West, great caution was observed in
keeping it well prepared for attack, and at times the military force
numbered five hundred men. Cordial relations never existed between
the majority of the French and the British, and many of the former
sympathized with the Americans and hoped for their success; still
205
there were a few who fought as officers and common soldiers in the
British war. Some were indiscreet enough to air their American lean-
ings, and several were imprisoned for so doing. Others were dismissed
from the settlement and went away to the Illinois country, while a few
were sent away as prisoners to Niagara and Montreal. When the British
and their Indian allies were preparing for a raid upon some American
settlement, the French sometimes succeeded in warning the Americans
of their intentions and thus prevented a surprise. Orders were re-
ceived from Quebec to treat such persons as spies and hang them.
James Sterling, the merchant who married Mile. Cuillerier, was pro-
scribed for his known sympathies with the rebels and had to leave the
settlement. Sometimes the Indians would come back with prisoners
and proceed to torture them, and frightful barbarities were performed
within sight of the fort, and with the knowledge of the lieutenant-
governor. One day a prisoner had been terribly beaten with clubs in
running the gauntlet, and had suffered numerous wounds, when the
savages tied him to a stake and began to burn him alive. A humane
citizen rushed in and cut his bonds in spite of the threats of the sav-
ages. He supported the unhappy wretch to his own home and after-
ward concealed him from the Indians in a vacant building. The
savages made a great outcry against this interference with their time-
honored customs, and complained to Hamilton and Dejean, Next
morning Dejean arrested the rescuer, and searched out the victim who
had been doomed to the torture in order to deliver him over to the In-
dians, but the poor fellow died of his injuries before the torture could
be resumed. Hamilton called the humane citizen before him and
threatened him with imprisonment if he ever dared to interfere with
the practices of the savages again.
In the year 1777 steps were taken toward the establishment of a
navy on Lakes Erie, Huron and Michigan, and Governor-General Guy
Carleton issued an order, dated at Quebec, October 20, providing that
the navy should be officered. The pay of the commander-in-chief was
fixed at fifteen shillings a day; masters, ten shillings; lieutenants of
various grades, six shillings, four shillings and six pence, and three
shillings and six pence.
In 1777, a commission was issued to Normand McLeod, creating him
"town major," by authority of Henry Hamilton, lieutenant-governor
and superintendent of Detroit and dependencies. The commission
bore the signatures of Henry Hamilton and Philip Dejean.
206
Hamilton's chief instruments of destruction against the Americans
were Alexander McKee, Matthew Elliott and Simon Girty, three men
who deserted from the American garrison of General Lewis at Fort
Pitt. McKee was the leader in this desertion. He was an Indian agent
in the pay of the British government, and it was learned that he was
holding out various inducements to persuade the American soldiers
to desert. He was arrested and placed on parole, but on the night of
March 28, 1778, McKee, Elliott and Girty, accompanied by a man
named Higgins, and two negroes, escaped into the wilderness and made
their way to Detroit. In Detroit plans were laid for organizing the
Indians of the territory now covered by Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and
Michigan into a confederacy for a war against the American settlers.
Girty had been brought up among the Seneca or Mingo Indians, in the
Hocking Valley, and was accustomed to barbarous surroundings. He
spoke several Indian dialects and was very influential with the savages.
He made his home among the Wyandottes at Upper Sandusky, near
the present site of Fremont, Ohio, and acted under immediate direction
of McKee and Elliott. Girty had two brothers, James and George, who
were also made Indian agents. Tradition has it that Girty, who was
always a tory a heart, had been rebuked at Fort Pitt by General Lewis,
who called him a traitor, and that Girty retorted that if any one was a
traitor it was General Lewis. The general, who was a passionate man,
struck Girty over the head with his cane, drawing a stream of blood.
Girty rushed to the door of the general's quarters and turning said :
" Your quarters shall yet swim in blood for this." An instant later he
had plunged into the forest.
Historians in speaking of Girty have usually called him a renegade,
but he called himself a tory. It is certain that he was a scourge to the
Ohio and Pennsylvania settlers for years after, and he organized and
led some of the bloodiest Indian raids in the history of the countrv.
In the fall of 1778 Simon Kenton, a pioneer of great renown, had set
out from the Kentucky shore with a few daring hunters to attack the
Indians on the north side of the Ohio; he was captured and condemned
to death at the stake. Girty and he had been boys together and three
times within a few days did Girty save him from death by torture. He
was finally brought to Detroit, but escaped and went back to his home
where he had been given up as dead. That same summer Daniel
Boone, the great Kentucky pioneer, was captured while in company
with several other settlers who were boiling salt at Blue Lick Springs.
207
He was broug-ht to Detroit with the Indians when they returned north-
ward with their customary spoils. Captain Lernoult, the commandant,
offered to buy him from his captors, but the Indians refused to give up
so noted a captive and took Boone back to Chillicothe, whence he
made his escape to Kentucky.
In 1778 John Butler, a tory who had formerly lived in Wyoming
valley, Pa., went from Detroit, accompanied by Captain Bird and a
company of rangers, to make an attack upon his old neighbors. Most
of the able bodied men in the valley were away in the American army,
but the residents fled to the fort. When Butler appeared with a horde
of yelling savages at his heels they feared to surrender. Only a part
of the attacking force showed itself and it soon retired to entice the of-
fenders outside. A party of two hundred men set out in pursuit, and
suddenly found themselves surrounded by Indians. In a short time
the Indians returned to the fort with 196 scalps, and again demanded
a surrender. The fort was set on fire, and some of the inmates perished
in the flames rather than risk a death by torture. Another raid was
made into the adjoining Cherry Valley and more scalps were taken.
For this and other services Butler was given the rank of a colonel, an
annual pension of $2,500 and a tract of 5,000 acres of land. Captain
Bird, who took part in this and many other bloody raids against the
American settlers, is described as a man of repulsive appearance, with
a very red face, prominent teeth and a hair lip. He was unfortunate
in love, and his fellow officers twitted him with it, and this it is said
led him to ask and obtain command of military sevices that would di-
vert his mind from his disappointments.
An attack upon Detroit was planned at Fort Pitt in 1778. In the
same year Generals Gibson and Mcintosh, under directions from Gen.
George Washington, erected a fort at Beaver Creek and another on the
Tuscarawas River, both in southern Ohio. The first was named Fort
Mcintosh and the latter Fort Laurens. General Gibson remained
through the winter at Fort Laurens. He intended to set out for
Detroit in the spring, but by spies or treason, his intentions became
known to the British, and Simon Girty with a force of 800 Indians
started from Detroit with the intention of capturing Fort Laurens. He
and Gibson hated each other cordially, and each longed for the scalp of
the other. Meanwhile intelligence of Girty's approach had come to
David Zeisberger, the Moravian missionary at Gnadenhutten, which
was situated not far from the fort. His informant was a Delaware
FREDERICK C. STOEPEL.
Indian. Zeisberger, who sympathized with the Americans, wrote a
letter to Gibson cautioning him to keep close to the fort, as he would
soon be attacked. The warning, however, was disregarded, and Gib-
son sent a detachment to Fort Mcintosh for provisions. They were
attacked on their return when within sight of the fort, the supplies
captured and two were killed, four wounded, and one taken prisoner.
Letters to General Gibson were also captured which gave full details
of the projected attack on Detroit. Girty's Indians besieged the fort,
but in a few days went away. Meanwhile Captain Bird and 120 sav-
ages arrived on February 22, and lay in ambush near the fort. A
wagoner and eighteen men, who had been sent out to get wood, were
attacked and all killed and scalped, except two. Bird conducted the
siege for four weeks, but was unsuccessful. Had he persevered a few
days more he would have captured the fort, as the garrison was nearly
starved when he left.
In the summer of 1779 the garrison of Detroit was reinforced by 200
troops from Niagara In time Girty advanced toward Fort Pitt, but
Heckewelder, the Moravian missionary at Salem, warned General
Brodhead, the American commandant. This was discovered by Girty
and he ordered a young brave to kill Heckewelder, but Captain Pipe,
a Delaware chief, told the brave to let the missionary alone and the
latter was saved. In April, 1779, Girty and Bird made another raid
from Detroit on Fort Henry (Wheeling, W. Va. ), but they failed and
raised the siege. At that time there was an emigration of settlers from
Pennsylvania and Virginia to " Kentuck," as Kentucky was then called,
and 300 canoe loads of emigrants and their effects landed at Louisville
during that year. Girty's men would lie concealed on the banks of the
river, and as the boats were passing they would cry out for help. Three
boats containing twenty-four people were thus lured by the cries to the
shore, when they were set upon and most of the party slaughtered.
Peter Malott escaped by swimming to the other shore, but his wife,
his daughter Catherine and two small children, were taken prisoners.
The two small children were killed, but Mrs. Malott and Catherine
were captives in the Wyandotte village at Upper Sandusky for some
time. Subsequently Catherine became Mrs. Simon Girty, and the
marriage took place at Detroit.
The British forts or outposts, from which expeditions were sent
against the rebel colonists in the Ohio valley and Kentucky, were Kas-
kaskia. 111., Vincennes, Ind., and Detroit. Kaskaskia was founded by
209
La Salle in 1682 and consisted of a log fort and the houses of a few
traders and farmers. The first French residents there became assimi-
lated with the Indian tribes, but the later British settlers had withstood
the influence of barbarism. Vincennes was the seat of a French Jesuit
mission as early as 1702, and it had become a post of some importance.
As soon as the British colonies demonstrated their strength, a tacit
agreement came into existence between England and Spain that the
colonists must not extend their borders beyond the Alleghany Moun-
tains, and the British undertook the task of keeping them back. Ex-
peditions were fitted out at Detroit, Vincennes and Kaskaskia to drive
them out of the Ohio Valley. A hundred or more British soldiers would
set out for the valley, gathering Indians as they went, and each expe-
dition was a campaign of blood and murder, with all the atrocities of
savage warfare.
Quite a number of vessels plied the lakes in the early years of the
English rule. During the Pontiac war the schooner Gladwin and the
sloops Beaver and Bear, helped to keep communication between De-
troit and Niagara. In 1777 a small fleet could assemble at Detroit in
support of the fort, including His Majesty's ship Gage, armed with six-
teen carriage guns, six swivels and forty-eight men; -H. M. S. Dun-
more, twelve guns, four swivels and thirty-six men; the schooner
Ottawa, twelve guns, and six swivel blunderbusses and thirty-six men ;
the schooner Wyandotte, four guns, six swivels and fourteen men; the
schooner Hope, six guns and eighteen men; and the sloops Angelica,
Faith, Welcome, Adventure, Archangel and Galley. In the spring of
1780 the Wyandotte went ashore on the east side of Lake Huron, but
the Welcome went to her assistance and she was hauled off safely with
her cargo. The Angelica got aground at the mouth of the river and
she had to be lightered by bateaux. The Dunmore, Wyandotte, Gage,
Felicity and the Ottawa, made trips between Detroit and Mackinaw,
but most of the other crafts were too small to be trusted in such stormy
waters. They coasted along Lake Erie carrying goods and military
supplies between Detroit, the Miami fort on the Maumee, Sandusky,
Erie and Niagara.
Late in the fall of 1778 General Brodhead, of the Continental army,
advanced into Ohio with a large force of men, estimated at between
2,000 and 3,000. It was feared that he was on his way to attack Detroit
and there was considerable consternation among the British. Captain
Lernoult, who had been promoted to major, when he arrived at Detroit,
210
realized that Fort Detroit, while a fairly safe refuge from hostile Indians,
could not be held against an enemy supplied with artillery, as the hill
on the north side of the Savoyard Creek was somewhat higher than the
fort. He saw that an enemy could throw up earthworks there and
mount a battery, which would soon make kindling wood of the older
fortification. After consulting with his officers Major Lernoult decided
that no time must be lost, although Lieut. Henry Du Vernet, the only
competent engineer of the post, was absent at Vincennes. In his ab-
sence Capt. Henry Bird went that evening to the hill and traced a square
outline on the ground for a new fort, where the new government build-
ing now stands. Later he added four half bastions, so as to afford
flanking protection against attacks on the gates. This redoubt was
built with clay walls ten feet thick, and the clay was bound by layers
of brush and cedar posts every three feet and the earth was well rammed.
The glacis was beset with sharpened stakes, and the foot of it was pro-
tected by abatis of felled trees with the limbs trimmed and sharpened.
To prevent the slopes from being washed away by the rains, they were
sodded, but during that winter and during all the following spring the
embankments washed and slid into the ditch in exasperating fashion.
When Lieutenant Du Vernet returned the new fort was too far ad-
vanced to be altered, although it was faulty in many respects. On the
south side of the fort a subterranean magazine of stone was built; it
lay at the foot of the glacis and a short distance from it so that in case
of an explosion those in the fort would not suffer. It was arched with
stone over the top and an underground passage led from the fort to its
interior. The magazine was situated not far from the south side of
Fort street, and at a point perhaps 150 feet west of Shelby street. In
consequence of the slope of the ground at the time when the fort was
built the top of the magazine was below the ground level of the inter-
ior of the fort. The work on the fort was constant from the middle of
November until February, but the alarm proved to be groundless, as
Brodhead did not come nearer Detroit than ninety miles down the
Maumee Valley. When George Rogers Clark heard that Fort Lernoult
had been added to the other fortifications at Detroit, he sent a letter by
a prisoner whom he had taken in southern Ohio, thanking Lernoult for
the new work. He said that the new fort would save the Americans
the trouble of building much needed improvements at Detroit when it
would presently come into their hands.
The British expedition which left Detroit in 1778-79, and ravaged
211
the entire Ohio valley, is familiar histor)^, and the bloody tragedies at
Boonesboro and Harrodsburg, Ky,, are among the most horrible events
of the period. It was this series of raids which instigated Clark, then
a colonel and afterward a general, in the Continental army, to under-
take the capture of the seat of trouble in the North. He was opposed
by the border settlers because they thought that he would only bring
more troubles upon them, and he had a host of personal enemies who
interfered with his plans, but he organized a company of 500 rangers
and struck out into the wilderness. His first campaign was on the
northern Ohio shore, where he laid waste several Indian villages in
the Muskingum valley. Those Indians were quiet for a long time
after. Next he invaded the Miami and Scioto valleys, with 1,000
mounted riflemen, and destroyed several Indian towns, striking terror
into the heart of the savage.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Gen. George Rogers Clark Captures Vincennes and Other British Posts — Hamilton
Goes to Recover Them and is Captured — He Narrowly Escapes Hanging at the
Hands of the Colonists— 1778-1779.
In the fall of 1778 Gen, George Rogers Clark set out with about 500
men to make a secret raid into the Illinois country, for the purpose of
capturing Kaskaskia, Kahokia, and Vincennes before they could be re-
inforced from Detroit. He expected that his success would give him
a prestige with Congress that would result in a more pretentious expe-
dition against Detroit, the center of disturbance. He believed that
that stronghold, if in the hands of the Americans, would prevent the
British from stirring up the Indians against the settlers. The perilous
nature of Clark's project was well understood by his men, who were mere
rangers and woodsmen without much military training, and they de-
serted in large numbers. Col. Archibald Lochry, who attempted to
follow him in canoes with a force of 100 volunteers from Westmore-
land, Pa., was attacked on the Ohio River by an army of Miamis and
Shawnees, which had been sent out from Detroit under Joseph Brant and
George Girty. The American party was utterly destroyed, none of the
troops returning to tell the tale.
212
It would require a vast amount of research to make an exact enumer-
ation of all the raids sent out from Detroit, and the counter raids or-
ganized in Pittsburg-, Louisville and Virginia against Detroit during
the Revolutionary war. None of the latter were formidable until
attempts were made by Harmar, St. Clair and Wayne, but Gen. George
Rogers Clark was for more than five years a cause of great anxiety to
Hamilton and De Peyster. British spies brought the information that
the capture of Detroit was the pet scheme of this dashing commander,
who never had a disciplined body of men, but was apparently invinci-
ble when he set out for a raid. The French residents of Detroit, who
sympathized with the American cause, would taunt the British soldiers
and Indian agents when they came back from their raids with the
bloody trophies of war, saying: "Wait until old Clark brings his
rangers to Detroit and you will see some scalping of another sort.
Clark will one day nail all your scalps against the wall of the fort."
There was good reason for the hesitation of the Americans in attack-
ing Detroit, for such an enterprise meant a march through a wilderness
of 300 or 400 miles, through which there were no roads available for
wagon trains or for the hauling of artillery. This was the least of the
difficulties. This region was occupied by perhaps 3,000 hostile Indians.
Most of them were pledged to the British cause; and those who were
not would resent an invasion of Americans. The long march thus
promised to be a series of ambuscades to the invading force. The
British, on the other hand, could proceed through the country of their
allies secure from attack, and their forces, instead of being constantly
lessened by fighting, would be constantly augmented by additions of
Indian warriors. This in part explains why Detroit was so long un-
disturbed by an invasion from the south and east. The British had
absolute control of the lakes so that an expedition by water was out of
the question. With a constantly diminishing force of men Clark marched
through the wilderness of Illinois, coming upon Kaskaskia, in Illinois,
with a complete surprise. The settlers and soldiers in the Illinois set-
tlements were terror stricken in consequence of the tales of ferocity
they had heard regarding the "Long Knives," as the Kentuckians
were called. Most of them hid in their cellars, and a delegation of
Frenchmen came to Clark offering themselves as slaves if the " Long
Knives " would spare their lives and those of their families. They
were told that they should come to no harm if they submitted peace-
ably. General Clark compelled them to keep within doors until the
213
fort and all the arms of the place were turned over to his troops. Then
he sent word to the settlers that they mig-ht go about their regular
business in perfect security. The announcement was received with
cheers of delight. The French denounced the English as liars and
swore allegiance to the Americans. When they learned that Kahokia,
further up the Kaskaskia River, and Vincennes were also to be taken,
they wanted to send messengers who would inform the people at those
posts of the true character of the "Long Knives." But Clark was
still suspicious and he kept the French in his rear until he had sur-
prised Kahokia. This capture was as easy as that of Kaskaskia. Clark
then allowed a delegation of French to go to Vincennes to notify the
people of his approach and of his good will toward them. Vincennes
surrendered without striking a blow, and so loyal did the French
appear that Fort Sackville, as the fortification was called, was left in
charge of Captain Leonard Helm and a private named Moses Henry,
in the belief that the French would help defend it in case the English
should attack and attempt a recapture. But the French preferred to
remain neutral for a time while England fought it out with her colonies.
Some refugees from Vincennes arrived at Detroit and Lieutenant-
Governor Hamilton organized an expedition to recapture the posts,
Clark and his men had returned to Kaskaskia to await reinforcements
which never came, and they were royally entertained there by the French
.settlers. Hamilton set out with thirty regulars of the Eighth Regiment,
eighty-eight French volunteers and 150 Indians, under command of
Guillaume La Mothe and Lieut. Jehu Hay. The route was by the river
and lake to the mouth of the Maumee, thence to the Miami fort, and
from there by portage to the Wabash. When he arrived before Vin-
cennes in January, 1779, he found the gate of the fort wide open but a
loaded cannon pointed outward from the opening. Beside it stood
Captain Helm holding ablazing match of tarred rope in his hand, while
private Henry trained the gun on the approaching enemy,
"Halt!" shouted the dauntless Helm as the British soldiers ap-
proached within a hundred yards.
Commandant Hamilton sent Lieut. Jehu Hay forward with a demand
for a surrender of the fort.
"Tell Hamilton that I know his ways," replied Helm; "no man
shall enter here until I know the terms of surrender."
The message came back that the garrison would be allowed to march
out with the honors of war and be fully protected.
214
" Your terms are accepted," answered Helm, dashing his match to
the ground. "Attention company ! Shoulder arms! March!"
Hamilton, who had supposed that a considerable force of men, at
least half of Clark's army, were concealed within the stockade, was
amazed to see the hardy Kentuckian march out in great dignity, sword
in hand, followed by a single private with shouldered musket. But the
honors of war were observed.
This is one account of the capture which has come down as a tra-
dition, and it has been accepted as history by Bryant, but Hamilton left
another record. According to his report, he sent Hay forward with a
company of men to notify the residents of Vincennes that the British
lieutenant-governor from Detroit was approaching with a large body of
troops. The people of Vincennes were warned to lay down their arms
and to abandon the cause of the rebels, or they would be killed without
mercy. Hamilton's barbarous methods had made his name a terror,
although he was a coward at heart, and the French laid down their
arms. Hay took possession of the arms, and Captain Helm's force,
which consisted of seventy men, abandoned him. There was no one
left to defend the post, and Helm delivered it over to Hamilton upon
his arrival.
One report appears as improbable as the other, but it is certain that
the fort was surrendered to Hamilton without striking a blow. As
may be seen, the situation of Clark and his men was indeed desperate,
being in the enemy's country hundreds of miles from reinforcements
and supplies. The French were friendly and would help them to food,
but they would not help them fight their common enemy the British.
Hamilton was known to be a man of barbarous methods who would be
likely to accept a surrender and then turn the savages loose upon dis-
armed prisoners. To retreat was practically impossible, for the enemy
was well supplied with boats for pursuit, and marching was almost im-
possible, because a snow fall of great depth had melted so suddenly
that most of the country was under water. Clark resolved to strike
boldly at his enemy and take him by surprise, regardless of the fact
that he was outnumbered by the British and that they were protected
by a fort. The few canoes which were available were manned by
forty six men and loaded with supplies for a long journey. The time
was at hand for the desperate effort.
Owing to the bad weather Hamilton had neglected to attack the two
forts at Kaskaskia and Kahokia still held by Clark, thinking that there
215
would be plenty of time after the high water had subsided. He had
dispatched a force of thirty men to waylay Clark if possible and cap-
ture him, realizing that his followers would scatter immediately if the
master spirit was not at hand to inspire them. The kidnaping party
returned unsuccessful.
Clark led his little army of 130 men by a circuitous route toward
Vincennes, evading any outposts which might have been stationed to
watch the trail. For four days they marched amid the greatest hard-
ships. They were seldom on dry land, the water on the bottom lands
of the Wabash valley averaging between three and four feet deep, and
it was icy cold. Guns were held high and knapsacks were carried on the
heads of the soldiers. Some were drowned in deep holes while cross-
ing branches, but at last the Kentuckians came out on dry ground near
Vincennes. Some of the residents of the locality were captured, and to
prevent the British from learning how small the attacking force really
was, Clark prevented these men from going about in his camp, while
he gave them the idea that he had a force of more than a thousand
riflemen. When he arrived before Vincennes, after sixteen days'
march, he sent word to the residents that those who chose to fight for
their oppressors should go into the fort, and those who would fight for
political freedom would be welcomed in his ranks. The neutrals were
warned to betake themselves to places of safety. Many of the residents
went into the fort, where they merely helped to exhaust the provisions.
Hamilton had much the superior force, but he could make no estimate
of Clark's army, and being a cowardly as well as a cruel man, he kept
to the fort. His enemy fought in backwoods fashion, just as the In-
dians had compelled the early pioneers to fight, and every man was
armed with the long Kentucky rifle, which was much superior in range
and accuracy to the muskets of the soldiers. They took possession of
every sheltered position about the town and every time an inmate of
the fort showed his head it would be the target for the deadly rifles. A
ruse of the commander was most successful in intimidating Hamilton.
On the last day of the siege two log cannons were made and painted
black, and when ostentatiously placed in front of the fort, they were
mistaken for genuine artillery. As the defenders of the fort were now
out of provisions, Hamilton sent out for terms of surrender. Clark
sent word that the surrender must be unconditional, and that the Brit-
ish must evacuate the territory, leaving all their supplies. Hamilton
refused to accept and the siege went on. Later Hamilton secured a
216
COL. THORNTON F. BRODHEAD.
personal interview with Clark, who took care to make a great show of
strength, and was firm in his demands. Justice Dejean had been sent
back to Detroit for reinforcements and supplies, and an expedition led
by Dejean was on its way to relieve the fort in canoes and bateaux,
carrying $50,000 worth of supplies. Clark learned of this, and with-
out showing any weakness in front of the fort, sent half his men to in-
tercept the flotilla of canoes as they were coming down the Wabash.
The attack was successful, and the soldiers and their supplies were cap-
tured by the Kentuckians. Some of the Indians who had participated
in the massacre of Col. Archibald. Lochry and his 100 volunteers
from Westmoreland, Pa., were captured near the fort, and by Clark's
orders they were tomahawked and scalped in front of the gate. He
allowed several white prisoners to escape and make their way into the
fort that Hamilton might learn that the relieving expedition had been
captured. Hamilton lost heart and surrendered the fort the next day.
On March 5, 1779, Hamilton, Dejean, Capt. Guillaume La Mothe,
Lieut. Jehu Hay, Lieutenant Scheiffelin, and twenty others were sent
as prisoners of war to Fort Pitt, and later to Williamsburg, Va.
Clark in his official report alluded to Hamilton as the "great hair-
buyer," referring to his practice of paying bounties for scalps. Charges
of barbarism were preferred against the prisoners, the recital of which
made the Americans furious with rage. They were tried, and Hamil-
ton was sentenced to be hanged, but Washington and Thomas Jeffer-
son, then governor of Virginia, interceded for their lives. They were
paroled in October, 1780, and exchanged during the following year —
all except Lieutenant Scheiffelin, who ran away to Detroit at the first
opportunity.
The peril which hung over these prisoners is shown in a letter
written by an American soldier, John Dodge, who had been captured
during the colonists' attack on Quebec in 1775. Under date of July
13, 1779, he wrote from Pittsburg to Philip Boyle, merchant at St.
Duski (Sandusky), as follows: "It is with pleasure that I inform you
that I have escaped from Quebec. I have now the honor of wearing a
captain's uniform and commission and am managing Indian affairs
here. There has been a battle in Carolina and the English were de-
feated. I am going to Williamsburg, Va. , in a few days to prosecute
Hamilton, that rascal Dejean, Lamotte, likewise Haminey and Hay.
They will all be hanged without redemption and the Lord have mercy
on their souls."
217
In addition to his barbarism Henry Hamilton had other aults. Not
only did he usurp the supreme authority of the law and enforce the
extreme penalties, but he was dishonest. During his term of service
at Detroit he pocketed all the crown revenues and made no returns.
In spite of his faults his government rewarded him for his zeal in perse-
cuting American settlers. Not only were his past sins forgiven, but he
was made lieutenant governor of Canada, and the city of Hamilton, in
the Bermuda Islands, was named in his honor. He was afterward made
governor of the Bahama Islands. He died in 1796.
Thomas Williams whose son, John R. Williams, was the first Amer-
ican mayor elected by the people of Detroit, under the charter of 1824,
was afterward appointed a justice by Major Lernoult to succeed Dejean.
When Hamilton and his crew had been taken to Virginia as prisoners
of war, Governor-General Sir Frederick Haldimand ordered Col. Arent
Schuyler De Peyster to leave his command at Mackinaw and proceed
to Detroit.
De Peyster had long been complaining because Hamilton, a mere
captain, had been given the most important post on the frontier,
while he had been thrust away as commandant of an insignificant post,
where there was no chance to achieve either wealth or glory. De Peys-
ter was not appointed lieutenant-governor, but was made commandant
in place of Major Lernoult, who was presently transferred to Niagara.
De Peyster was a more humane man than Hamilton, but he soon de-
generated into a human butcher. At first he instructed the Indians to
take prisoners rather than scalps and to abstain from torturing their
captives, but the Indians would not harass the Americans unless they
could also kill and torture them, and De Peyster finally consented to,
and upheld, their barbarities.
George Rogers Clark was tendered a resolution of thanks by the
Legislature of Virginia, and was made a general as a reward for his
heroic accomplishments. He had undertaken the capture of the British
posts on his own authority, and had not even informed Washington of
his purpose. He sent to Virginia for reinforcements, saying that the
one fort which now menaced the settlers of the west was at Detroit (he
spelled it Detroyet), and he could not feel satisfied until he had taken
that British stronghold. His request was ignored, and Clark, who was
a man of boundless energy, courage and ambition, was compelled to
desert the scenes of his brilliant victories, and lead his sadly weakened
army back to Kentucky. Clark corresponded with Washington and
218
with the Virginia authorities, begging for a company of men and suffi-
cient supplies to make an attack upon Detroit, so as to stop the Indian
depredations. All his ambition was centered in this one accomplish-
ment, but Washington, while recognizing his courage and ability, was
aware of his defects — for Clark was a man of violent temper and of intem
perate habits. Gen. Daniel Brodhead was given the mission for which
Clark had pleaded, but he appears to have been unsuccessful, for
while the British were repeatedly alarmed by rumors of his approach
with an army of several thousand men, he never came nearer than a
point about twenty miles south of the present site of Toledo. Clark
led several successful raids into Ohio in 1780 and 1782, destroying the
Shawnee villages along the Scioto River and the Miami villages around
the present site of Piqua He was appointed Indian commissioner,
and the savages had great respect for this fearless fighter. His disap-
pointment grew upon him as he saw Detroit, the key of the west, re-
main in the hands of the British, and he retired to his log cabin at the
falls of the Ohio. Like that flower of Spanish chivalry, Bernado del
Carpio —
"His heart was broke; his later days
Untold in martial strain,
His banner led the spears no more
Amid the hills of Spain."
Clark sank into a profound melancholy, became more intemperate
than ever, and died in poverty and neglect in Louisville, Ky.
219
CHAPTER XXIX.
How the Fort and Settlement Looked During the Revolutionary War — Character
of the Houses — Costumes of the Various People — Drunken Indians and Returning
Raiders with Reeking Scalps and Live Prisoners to Torture on the Common.
Detroit was a bustling center of activity in the year 1780. The new
fort, on the rising ground, had been much enlarged and strengthened,
and the stockade now enclosed several acres. Many houses were
located outside the fortifications, but these were almost forts in them-
selves, with their strong log walls and their palisades of stout pickets
inclosing the grounds. North of the fort, reaching to a marshy tract
of land where Grand Circus Park is now located, stretched the commons,
where the cattle, ponies and pigs of the settlers roamed for pasturage.
The houses for the most part lay along the river, and each night the
boys of the settlement could be seen driving the cattle homeward by
winding paths. Beyond the common stretched an interminable wil-
derness, from which the whoo-whoo of the owls and the weird howl of
the wolf could be heard after nightfall. The houses of the wealthier
settlers were quite pretentious in their dimensions. They were all
built of logs, and the huge beams which supported the upper floors
were hung with seed corn, dried pumpkin, hanks of yarn, smoked
hams, jerked venison, and the vegetable seeds saved during the pre-
vious season. The decorations were almost exclusively of Indian
manufacture. Great elk skins, tanned a pale buff color and decorated
with dyed porcupine quills, served as curtains and window shades.
Huge grass mats, plaited by the hands of the busy squaws, covered the
floors; and the spinning wheel, the flax wheel and the old fashioned
hand loom were among the ornaments of the living rooms. Indian
pipes, richly decorated moccasins and other bric-a-brac were to be
found everywhere. On the antlers of giant elk, nailed to the walls,
hung the long, flintlock rifles, powder horns which had once been the
defense of huge buffalo, and bullet pouches of squirrel skin. Nearly
every wealthy settler had one or more slaves, who were either Pawnee
Indians or Africans, and who attended to the duties of the household
220
and tilled the gardens. Each house had a cellar with its store of vege-
tables and salt meat, a barrel of cider, some jugs and bottles of wine
made from the scuppernong grape, which was a luxuriant vine in the
local forest, or perhaps a cask of ale or strong beer from the local
brewery, which was first installed by Cadillac and his brewer, Joseph
Parent. On the narrow streets the young ladies wore short skirts of
gay colors, with^ neatly fitting bodices, and white kerchiefs about their
necks and shoulders. Their bonnets were usually homemade, but
much beautified by the art of the seamstress. The family table never
lacked for meat, for the woods abounded in wild turkeys, deer, elk and
pheasants. The river was alive with wild geese, ducks, brant and wild
swans. Whitefish were to be had for the casting of a net, and there
was a great variety of other fish.
Though a far inland town, Detroit had even then the manners of the
seaboard, and its fashions were those of the London and Paris of the
period — somewhat later, however, owing to the ninety days' sail from
Europe and a two months' paddle up the Hudson, Mohawk and Oswego
Rivers and then throughout Lakes Erie and Ontario. Matrons wore
dresses with long skirts and short waists and very short sleeves, and quite
often veiled their faces; while the gentlemen went in shovel hats and
powdered perukes, with silk hose and knee breeches with silver buck-
les. On festive occasions, which were numerous even during the
Revolutionary war, there was no end to the display of silk and satin
gowns, and gold bespangled shoes, and costly jewels glittered as the
slow and stately figures of the minuet moved through the richly fur-
nished drawing rooms with the solemn precision of a funeral. This was
of course among the upper classes. Less pretentious but equally
picturesque was the dress of the settlers of small means and the fur
traders and their agents. Their coats were usually made of heavy
blanket cloth, black or blue in color, belted at the waist and with a ca-
pote or hood for covering the head in severe weather. Many of them
had a sort of barbaric taste for gay colors, and these would wear even
scarlet, red or crimson coats, while the cuffs, pocket flaps and collars
were bound with fur according to the taste or extravagance of the
wearer. Their trousera were of the knickerbocker pattern, usually of
coarse and heavy cloth and often of elk skin. Their legs were en-
cased in thick leggins, green being a favorite color, and moccasins of
elk skin, ornamented by the hands of some industrious squaw, took the
place of the silver buckled shoes affected by the rich. Their hands
221
were protected by very heavy mittens, and their heads by fur caps
made of the skins of small animals, beautifully dressed. It was com-
mon practice to make the cap of the skin of the muskrat, woodchuck,
fox or marten, with the head at the front, in place of a visor, and the
tail hanging down over the shoulders, the sport of every passing breeze.
Out in the streets of old Detroit a visitor from the heart of civiliza-
tion could witness a panorama of never ending interest. Voyageurs,
boatmen and fur traders strolled about in fantastic dress, their faces
bronzed by exposure until they rivaled the hue of the Indians. Each
one bore with him the peculiar scent of peltries, combining the odors
of the beaver and muskrat and the odor of the smoke of the camp fires,
about which they usually slept on their journeys through the wilder-
ness. Those half wild men joked with the shy Indian girls and looked
with undisguised admiration at the pretty French girls who walked and
danced with the grace of Diana, but who could make the best of the
men bend their strong backs in a race on the river in birch bark canoes.
These daughters of the wilderness were fair and exceedingly vivacious.
They lacked the adornments to be found in the great cities of Europe,
but they made themselves attractive with the natural art that appears
to be born in the French woman.
Indians were to be found everywhere. They were picturesque when
sober, but repulsive in appearance when drunk, and the average sav-
age of that time, two hours after arriving in the town, was in one of the
many stages of intoxication and not at all pleasant to meet. As they
were away much of the time on marauds against the American settlers,
their squaws hung about the settlement making baskets, birch boxes,
maple syrup, bead work, moccasins and tanning hides, working indus-
triously, while their brown-skinned little ones tumbled about on the
river bank or swam in the clear waters with as much ease as the frogs.
Their papooses, bound to boards, were hung on the low boughs,
where the breezes could rock them. The male Indian despised work
and made his wife a slave. When he came to Detroit to trade, if his
march was overland, he tramped along with head erect, his dress orna-
mented with a profusion of trinkets and feathers, and narrow strips of
the scalps he had taken made a fringe for his deerskin breeches. His
gun, scalping knife, hatchet, powder horn and bullet pouch, w'ere all
the burdens he essayed to carry. Behind came his squaw, prematurely
aged by hard work, loaded to a bending posture with a pack of peltries
and camp utensils. The children followed in single file, the boys being
222
armed with bows and arrows and the girls carrying burdens suspended
upon their backs by a band across their foreheads. In Detroit the In-
dian husband and father disposed of his wares and his wife sold hers,
both trading for goods at the stores. The Indian's first purchase was
rum, and then he bought powder and ball ; but the wife bought cloth
and other necessities for her little ones, occasionally indulging in a
cheap ornament for her own person. Sometimes gray-coated mission-
aries, Moravians from the Clinton River, came to the king's common
and preached to the Indians; but they could make but little headway
against the influence of free rum and the inducements to barbarity
offered by the government officials at the post.
The fort loomed up a formidable looking work for that time. Its
strong bastions, armed with six-pound cannon, frowned on each cor-
ner. Massive blockhouses with overhanging second stories flanked
every gate ; and on the ramparts the scarlet coated soldiers strode to
and fro, keeping watch over the settlement in the name of the king.
Soldiers off duty flirted with the French maidens and strutted about
the narrow streets fully conscious of their own importance. In front
of the fort along the river bank were the first rude wharves of Detroit.
One near the tipper end of the stockade reached out into the river
more than 150 feet, and at the lower end of the fort was a shorter
wharf. Between the two was the harbor pool or anchorage for ships,
and usually two or three schooners, sloops or brigs lay in this anchorage,
swaying at their anchors with the strong current. Midway between
the two wharves and close to the water was a large and very massive
blockhouse, armed with two swivel guns to protect the landing of
friendly troops in case of war. The experience of the Pontiac war had
taught the British how necessary it was to have certain access to the
river at all times. Just east of the long or upper wharf was one of the
Detroit ship yards, where there was constant activity during the Revo-
lutionary war, for it was a standing order that Great Britain must
maintain control of the great lakes and that no other power should be
permitted to launch a craft in their waters. More than twenty vessels
were launched from the yard on the Rouge River near the present
Woodmere Cemetery during the last ten years of British possession —
1770 to 1780 — and there was always one or more on the stocks. Over-
head, on the tall flagstaff of the fort, floated the banner of Great
Britain, emblem of the most powerful government of the time. Notices
of public events were usually given out from Ste. Anne's church each
223
Sunday morning-, but notices were frequently published by the town
crier, who went through each street beating a drum and calling out
the advertisement he had been given to publish. From the forest
paths leading southward, parties of Indians were constantly arriving.
They bore scalps of murdered settlers, and drove before them half
starved captives, torn by briars and bleeding from the stripes and stabs
which had been inflicted upon them when their sore and swollen feet
faltered on the way. Girty, the malignant renegade, sometimes swag-
gered about the streets boasting of his deeds of blood, or wild with
rum, filled the air with imprecations against the Americans who had
sworn vengeance against him. Captains McKee and Elliott, James
Girty and George Girty, and Dequindre, Chesne and Beaubien and
other French residents who had taken service under the British, were
also familiar figures and always in close association with the Indian
allies whom they controlled. The cost of the peculiar warfare
which was waged from Detroit was greater than the British govern-
ment had anticipated, and there was much complaint against the ex-
pense, but the Indians would do nothing without rum and presents,
and their demands became every day more exorbitant. In 1781 the
cost of keeping them in arms against the Americans was over ;!^124,000,
or $320,000, according to the drafts drawn by De Peyster, and much
more was sent to them from Montreal. Inside the fort was the store-
house of supplies for the Indians. In an adjoining apartment was the
dreadful charnel house of the post. Hanging from the beams and
upon the walls of this large room were painted poles strung with
human scalps. Bales of scalps were piled in the corners of the room,
each being the ghastly relic of a wholesale murder. There, hanging
side by side, were the silver locks of the grandsire, who had been
murdered at his fireside, the scalp of the farmer and soldier, the long
braided locks of the matron, the flowing tresses of the girl in her 'teens
and the flaxen haired scalp of the tender babe. Each was carefully
stretched into a flat disk by drying on a hoop, and the flesh side was
painted a bright red. On the red ground were the private marks of the
slayer in blue and black, showing the manner in which the victims had
been killed.
Coiireurs de bois no longer carried their stock in trade from the in-
terior upon their backs. Each of these commercial travelers of the
wilderness had now one or more ponies, rough coated, broad backed
and very hardy. They traveled with a pacing or ambling gait, and
224
v^
s.
when the lakes and streams were frozen over in winter they could pull
rough sledges at surprising speed. Winter races between these val-
uable beasts of burden formed one of the pleasures of the settlement,
and the whole populace turned out to cheer the rival racers. The de-
scendants of these ponies are common in Canada and about Detroit,
and pony races are still a winter recreation on the frozen bosom of
the River Rouge, between Fort Street and the mouth of the Detroit
River.
After General Clark had captured the Illinois posts, the French set-
tlers at Kahokia and Kaskaskia, Ohio, which were then in Spanish ter-
ritory, picked up courage and did some fighting on their own account
against the British. In 1780 Lieutenant Scheiffelin, who had been
taken prisoner and sent to Williamsburg in company with Hamilton and
Dejean, made his escape. He said that the prisoners were treated
brutally and compelled to work like menials about the jail. Hamilton
was in great need of money while in prison and drew upon Governor
Haldimand for ^700. Strenuous efforts were made to secure his ex-
change, but up to that date they had failed. The protests of the
American Congress, the stories of wholesale massacres and the great
number of scalps of settlers brought to Detroit, excited the sympathy
of Lord Shelburne, the British colonial secretary, and he wrote to Gov-
ernor Haldimand ordering him to call off the savages. Haldimand
wrote to De Peyster conveying the order, but the latter replied that the
Indians were so enraged that it was impossible to restrain or to call
them away from the frontier. In the fall of 1780 Col. Augustin Mottin
de la Balme left Kahokia and made a first movement toward the Ohio
River. This was to disguise his purpose. He had planned to make a
sudden descent upon Detroit after he had united with the French at Vin-
cennes. He waited twelve days at Miami town, on the Maumee River,
for the arrival of the Vincennes men, and then partially destroyed the
village during the absence of the warriors, who were fighting the settlers
on the border. As he was on his way toward Vincennes a party of Miamis
surprised him and killed the commander and forty of his men, and the
remainder retreated. He had a force of about 130 men. Colonel
De la Balme cuts little figure in the published histories, but he was a
brave man who did much for the American colonies. He was a friend
of Count D'Estaing, who commanded the French allies in the Revolu-
tion, and upon his arrival in the United States with letters from Dr.
Franklin, he was made inspector -general of the Continental cavalry.
225
When D'Estaing, in the fall of 1778, issued a proclamation to the
French people of the Northwest, calling upon them in the king's name
to take up arms in behalf of the Americans and assist them in winning
their independence, De la Balme was the bearer of the message to the
French of Illinois. His military training showed him that he could
strike a telling blow by capturing Detroit, and but for the failure of his
compatriots to join him at the expected time he might have accom-
plished this valuable service.
An expedition set out from Detroit in 1780 under Lieutenant-Gov-
ernor Patrick Sinclair, of Mackinac, with the intention of capturing
the Spanish settlements of Pen Coeur and Kahokia in the Illinois
country, the latter being one of the places captured in 1778 b}^ General
Clark of Virginia. Pen Coeur (Hanging Heart) was captured and sixty-
eight of the garrison was killed. This was probably a wholesale
slaughter, for it is doubtful if the population exceeded that number.
The report of Commandant De Peyster mentions no prisoners taken at
this place. At Kahokia some traders had warned the settlement of the
approach of the British. De Peyster reported twenty- three prisoners
taken and 50,000 tons of lead ore was ''stopped."
The winter of 1780 was the most severe ever experienced at Detroit
up to that time. It was not until May 16, 1781, that the ice was suffi-
ciently cleared from the river to permit the first vessel to depart for
Erie. A census of Detroit taken in 1780 reads as follows : Heads of
families, 394; married and young women, 374; married and young
men, 332; men absent in Indian territory, 100; boys ten to fifteen
years of age, 455; girls, 385; male slaves, 79; female slaves, 96;
horses, 772; oxen, 474; cows, 793; steers, 361; sheep, 279; hogs, 1,016;
bushels of wheat, 13,316; corn, 5,380; peas, 488; oats, 6,253; flour,
358,000 pounds; bushels of wheat sown, 2,028; potatoes, 2,885; bar-
rels of cider, 828; acres under cultivation, 12,083. The males in the
above list probably include soldiers, and the total population was 2,205.
226
CHAPTER XXX.
Shocking Butchery of Ohio Settlers by the British Indians— A Bill of Lading for a
Shipment of 954 Human Scalps, Which tell a Gruesome Story— Reprisals by the Set-
tlers— Shameless Butchery of the Moravian Indians.
Perhaps the best idea of the attitude of the British at Detroit, during
the years of the Revolution, may be gained from papers submitted in
evidence by Dr. Benjamin Franklin, when he went to France to appeal
for assistance against British barbarities toward non-combatants.
One of these papers was a letter from a British officer, which was in-
tercepted on its way to Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton at Detroit:
" May it please your excellency: At the request of a Seneca chief I hereby send
to your Excellency under care of James Hoyd, eight packages of scalps, cured, dried,
hooped and painted with all the triumphal marks, and of which consignment this is
an invoice and explanation. Package number 1, forty three scalps of Congress sol-
diers, inside painted red with a small black dot to show they were killed by bullets;
those painted brown and marked with a hoe denote that the soldiers were killed
while at their farms; those marked with a black ring denote that the persons were
surprised by night ; those marked with a black hatchet denote that the persons were
killed with the tommahawk. Package number 2, ninety eight farmers' scalps; a
white circle denotes that they were surprised in the daytime ; those with a red foot
denote that the men stood their ground and fought in the defense of their wives and
families. Number 3, ninety-seven farmers' scalps; the green hoops denote that they
were killed in the fields. Number 4, 102 farmers' scalps ; eighteen are marked with
a yellow flame to show that they died by torture ; the one with a black band attached
belonged to a clergyman. Number 5, eighty-eight scalps of women; those with the
braided hair were mothers. Number 6, 193 boys' scalps. Number 7, 211 girls'
scalps. Number 8, 122 scalps of all sorts; among them are twenty-nine infant
scalps, and those marked with small white hoops denote that the child was unborn
at the time the mother was killed. The chief of the Senecas sends this message:
' Father, we send you here these many scalps that you may see that we are not idle
friends. We wish you to send these scalps to the Great King that he may regard
them and be refreshed: and that he may see our faithfulness in destroying his ene-
mies and be convinced that his presents are appreciated.' "
A fine present, this set of trophies, evidence of 954 murders which
spared neither age nor infirmity, man, woman or child or even babe
227
unborn — to forward to a monarch by the grace of God and defender of
the faith!
Settlers continued to be murdered right and left by prowling bands of
Indians, and many of them after being captured were submitted to the
most horrible tortures. The first torture would be to run the gauntlet
between double files of savages, armed with any weapon they chose to
use. Those condemned to death were stripped naked and painted
black. Sometimes their flesh would be filled with large pine splinters
and these would be set on fire. Some would be impaled on red hot
irons, or pinned fast to the ground and roasted under a fire of brush.
Others would be fired at with blank charges of powder at such close
range that the burning powder would penetrate far into their flesh.
The most common method was to tie prisoners to a stake and build a
wall of fire about them at a distance of about twenty feet so that they
would linger for hours in dreadful torture. Girty was frequently pres-
ent at such scenes and often scoffed at the victims; but it is also known
that he rescued many from such a death.
In March, 1780, Simon Girty was at Detroit to conduct Captain Bird
to an attack upon Louisville, where the Virginians had a fort of some
strength under command of Gen. George Rogers Clark. They started
with a considerable force of Canadians, most of them mounted, and
carried two light pieces of cannon. On the route Girty called out the
Indians at different villages in the Miami valley, until the force
amounted to 600 men. They could not reach Louisville during the
high water of the freshet season, so they attacked two small settle-
ments— Ruddle's Station, known as Fort Liberty, and Martin's Station,
both on the Licking River, immediately south of where Cincinnati
now stands. It was impossible for the settlers to make resistance
against such a force, so they surrendered upon promise of protection.
Captain Bird was unable to control the savages, however, and a num-
ber of settlers were slaughtered and scalped. Girty succeeded in pre-
venting a general massacre. The settlers who survived, numbering
about 400, were loaded with their own household goods and hurried to
Detroit on foot as prisoners of war. A number escaped, but 350 of the
settlers arrived at Detroit on August 4, 1780. The horrors of such a
march, where the men, women and children were loaded with burdens,
needs no description.
In the summer of 1780 Joseph Brant, chief of the Mohawk nation,
with a force of warriors, marched from Detroit to Niagara and from
228
there to Oswego, He went to punish the Oneidas, who had refused
to join with the British, and sympathized with the Americans. March-
ing- inland he attacked and burned several villages of the Oneida
nation, and the latter took refuge in the forts at Stanwix and Schen-
ectady, in N-ew York. This is the only noticeable case where two
nations of the Iroquois confederacy took different sides during the
Revolution.
Moravian missionaries had several times warned the American com-
mandants at Fort Pitt (Pittsburg) and other frontier posts of the ap-
proach of Girty and his Indians, and of Col. John Butler and his rangers,
who always aimed to surprise the Americans. In the fall of 1780 a
grand council of the Iroquois was called by Alexander McKee, the
British Indian agent, and was held at Detroit. At the council he asked
the Six Nations to break up the Moravian settlements atGnadenhutten,
Salem and Schoenbrun, all three in southern Ohio. It was a class of
dirty work which the Iroquois did not care to undertake, so they sent
word to the Chippewas, accompanied by a wampum belt, that they
might "make soup," if they wished, of the Christian Indians who were
being taught by the Moravian missionaries. But even these fierce
northern savages did not care to kill their own race without cause. The
Moravians were a peculiar religious sect who termed themselves ' ' United
Brethren in Christ." They developed from the missions which carried
Christianity into Bohemia in the ninth century, and began to assume
their present form as a religious society in the fourteenth century.
They came to America in 1735 to evangelize the Indians, first settling
in Georgia, but afterward removing to Pennsylvania where they founded
the towns of Bethlehem, Nazareth and Lititz. From there they sent
missionaries over into Ohio and also into Michigan. Gnadenhutten, on
the Tuscarawas River, was their chief settlement in Ohio, the name
signifying " tents of grace." The Moravian church was a sort of re-
ligious communism. It held all real estate as church property and
would not sell to persons outside the society. Personal property be-
longed to the individual, but the church exercised a temporal as well
spiritual authority over its adherents until 1844. The Moravians were
lovers of peace, and would not offer resistance to their oppressors.
They taught their followers humility and industry; when one died in
the faith it was a matter of rejoicing rather than mourning, and their
funeral processions were accompanied with the blowing of trumpets
and trombones. Each member was pledged to do what he could toward
229
evangelizing- the Indians, and their communities were the abodes of
peace and general happiness except when invaded by their oppressors.
In the spring of 1781 Col. Matthew Elliott, who had deserted the
American army with Girty, went to the Moravian villages, resolved to
get rid of the non-combatants at any cost. They made no resistance
and were placed in charge of a Frenchman named Le Villiers, who
took them, several hundred in number, to Detroit. Girty hated the
Moravian missionaries, and tried to get the young Miamis to murder
them, but the Delawares would not permit it. He ordered Le Villiers
to rush them to Detroit under the lash, allowing the women no time to
rest or to prepare food, but Le Villiers was a humane man and
showed them as much kindness as he could, and shielded them when
he could from the brutality of the savages. David Zeisberger, over
sixty years of age, John Heckewelder, Gottlieb Senseman, John Jacob
Schemick, John Bull and William Edwards, were the missionaries in
this party. Their villages were depopulated and the corn crop was
left unharvested in the fields. The prisoners were ill clad, many being
barefoot, and they were torn with briars and almost perishing from
hunger and fatigue when they arrived at their destination. As they
came near Detroit the squaws and young Indians set upon them and
beat them cruelly. James May, of Detroit, went out to witness their
arrival, when two girls, thirteen and fourteen years of age respectively,
broke away from their tormentors and fled to him for protection. The
Indians pursued, and, as the girls were clinging to May, that citizen,
who was a very large man, weighing about 300 pounds, defended them
with his fists and knocked two of the Indians down. He then took the
girls to the council house for shelter. The Indians complained to Cap-
tain McKee, and the latter went to De Peyster in a passion, saying
that his Indians must be allowed to do as they pleased with their vic-
tims, or they would desert the British cause. De Peyster summoned
May before him and said that he would send him to a dungeon at
Montreal if he ever dared to interfere between the Indians and their
captives again. When the Moravian missionaries had been brought
before Commandant De Peyster and the council house was filled with
Indian chiefs, who had been called to consider the missionary matter,
Girty told- the assemblage that the Moravians were friends of the Revo-
lutionists, and had given valuable information to the American com-
manders by apprising them of the movements of the British scalping
parties. Captain Pipe, the Delaware chief, a magnificent savage, arose
230
and addressed De Peyster, saying: "You Englishmen may fight the
Americans, your brothers, if you choose ; the quarrel is yours, not ours.
The Indians have no cause or reason for taking sides and shedding their
blood in this war, but you have set them upon the Americans as the
hunter sets his dog upon the game." At this moment he took from an
Indian at his side a pole strung with white settlers' scalps. "Look,
father! here is what has been done with the hatchet you gave me. I
have made use of it as you ordered me to do, and I found it sharp,"
Like most of the Delawares he had no particular grudge against the
Americans, but instead of remaining on their own lands in southern
New York, where their neutrality would be in doubt, most of the tribe
came to Ohio to assure the Senecas that they were to be trusted. The
British had hired some of them to take part in some raids, but Captain
Pipe was disgusted with the style of warfare. He was averse to war-
ring upon the settlers and bitterly opposed to attacking the unoffending
Moravians.
The Moravians were kept at Detroit for several weeks, during which
the commandant and the Indian agents tried to induce them to take up
the cause of the British, but they refused to fight on either side. In
order to get rid of the expense of keeping them they were acquitted in
November and sent to Upper Sandusky, there to be kept under guard
by Half,-King, head chief of the Wyandottes. Provisions soon ran low
at Sandusky and something had to be done, so a party of ninety-six
Moravian Indians, mostly Delawares, was allowed to go back to their
villages to gather the unharvested corn. They were accompanied by
a delegation of Wyandottes, ostensibly to insure their return to the
Half King's village, but perhaps for a more sinister purpose. Under
the lead of the Wyandottes they divided into small parties and went by
different routes. One party, led by Wyandottes, surprised Mrs. Robert
Wallace in her cabin during the absence of her husband, and, with
awful barbarity, killed her and three of her children. The bodies of
the dead were stripped and the bloody clothing was carried to the Mo-
ravian village of Gnadenhutten, and there left in the cabins. Another
party murdered John Fink, an American settler, and carried his bloody
clothing to the village. A third party carried John Carpenter of Buf-
falo Creek into captivity. The Wyandottes then went away, leaving
the Moravians unguarded. News of these raids caused James Marshel
to order out the militia of Washington county, Pa., of which he had
command, and Col. David Williamson, at the head of this body of men,
231
went across the border to punish the marauders. They arrived at the
Moravian villages and took the Indians into custody to march them
away to Fort Pitt, but after they had shut their captives in two of the
houses, a party of the white men found the bloody clothing of the mur-
dered settlers hidden about the houses. They concluded that the Mo-
ravians were dangerous hypocrites, who had been responsible for many
of the murders. Wild with passion they rushed to where the unarmed
Indians were awaiting transportation to Fort Pitt. Entering the houses,
they said to the Indians, "You are murderers and you must die. " The
Indians sank to their knees and began to pray, when one of the rangers
seized a mallet and struck several of them dead. Handing the mallet
to another the slaughter was resumed, guilty and innocent falling
alike, until ninety-four of the ninety six Indians lay dead. Two Indian
boys alone escaped to tell the dreadful story. This murderous act
aroused every Indian in the country, and those who had entered into
the marauds of the British in a half-hearted way before, were now fired
with vengeance. Their wrath was visited principally upon the settlers,
but before many months they had their revenge upon the soldiers as
well.
In the summer of 1781 the Spanish commandant at St. Louis, on
the Mississippi, organized a raid against the British post at St. Joseph
on Lake Michigan. With about 300 men he marched 600 miles across
Illinois, and when he arrived before the log fort at the mouth of the St.
Joseph River, the small British garrison took to the woods and ran
away to Detroit. The report of this attack created some alarm at
Detroit, but the Spaniards contented themselves with destroying the
fort and burning the palisades and the houses. The invaders took all
the stores of provisions and then marched back to St. Louis. It was
the last attempt made by the Spaniards against the British.
232
ELISHA TAYLOR.
CHAPTER XXXI.
Martyrdom of Colonel Crawford — He is Burned at the Stake by the Indians —
Simon Girty, the Renegade, Scoffs at His Agonies — Dr. Knight's Story of the
Tortures.
In the spring of 1782 Col William Crawford, an American officer of
Westmoreland, Pa., started from Pittsburg with 480 mounted volun-
teers to make a raid against the Indians of the Upper Sandusky vil-
lages. General Irvine, commandant at Fort Pitt, supplied hiin with
ammunition and sent Dr. John Knight and John Rose, one of his aides,
to accompany the expedition. The soldiers met a large party of
Indians and British near Upper Sandusky on June 5 and had an en-
gagement at a place known as Battle Island, situated in what is now
Crane township, Wyandot count3\ Captain Elliott and Lieutenant
Clinch, of the British force, conducted themselves with great gallantry,
as did John Rose and John Gunsalus of the Americans. Simon Girty
was also very active in the fight. Darkness parted the contestants,
and both sides slept on their arms, each building large fires and then
retiring some distance to avoid a surprise. Instead of resuming the
fight at daybreak Colonel Crawford made a fatal mistake by waiting
for his men to recuperate. A reinforcement of Shawnees arrived at the
British camp during the day. The Americans learned of it, and at a
council of war it was decided to retire at night and make the best pos-
sible retreat from the dangerous position. During the march through
the forest that night, Colonel Crawford, Major McClelland, Captain
Briggs, Dr. Knight, John Slover and about twenty others, who were
riding in the rear, became separated from the command, which was led
by Colonel Williamson and John Rose. The main army crossed the
Ohio on June 13, losing but three killed and eight wounded while
en route. Colonel Crawford and his men strayed eastward and they
were captured at noon on June 7, at a place which is now the site of
Leesville, Crawford county, Ohio. A party of Delawares and Shaw-
nees took them toward Sandusky, but the prisoners were confident
that Girty and the British officers would procure their exchange.
233
Captain Pipe, the Delaware chief, told them they would come to no
harm. But he painted black the faces of Crawford and ten other pris-
oners, which was equivalent to a death warrant among- the savages.
Colonel Crawford and Dr. Knight were marched in the rear and were
guarded by Captain Pipe and Wingemund, another Delaware chief,
while the other prisoners went on ahead. Soon after setting out
Crawford and Knight came upon the bodies of four of the other prison-
ers lying mutilated beside the road. Crawford asked Captain Pipe
about the fate of his son William, and his son-in-law, William Harrison,
who had been captured during the battle, and was told that they had
been sent to Detroit They had, however, been burnt at the stake
during the previous night. At Tymoochtee Creek a party of squaws
and boys attacked the helpless prisoners who were just ahead of Craw-
ford and Knight, and butchered them. Then they slapped the faces
of the colonel and the surgeon with the bloody scalps. That night
Colonel Crawford was stripped naked, beaten with switches, and tied
to a post about fifteen feet high with enough rope to enable him to
walk several times about the post. Dr. Knight was tied at a short dis-
tance away where he could see the torturing of his commander.
" Do they intend to burn me, Girty," asked the Colonel.
"Yes, 5^ou are a doomed man," replied Girty.
Crawford offered $1,000 in money for his release and, it is said,
offered to give valuable information, but the Indians were determined
to avenge the murder of the Moravians upon him and Dr. Knight.
He had known Girty nearly all his life, and when it became apparent
that he must endure the torture he composed himself like a brave man
and said to the renegade: "I shall try to bear it patiently." Captain
Pipe arose and delivered an impassioned address to the warriors, re-
citing the story of the Moravian massacre. At the conclusion of his
speech a large fire of hickory poles was built at a distance of twenty
feet from the post where Crawford was tied, and the savages with yells
of frenzy began their awful work. They loaded their guns with pow-
der only, and fired seventy charges into the naked flesh of their victim
at such close range that the burning powder was driven through
Colonel Crawford's skin. Then they cut off his ears, and the young
boys took the burning poles from the fire and jabbed them into his
fiesh. The squaws scooped up the coals with pieces of bark and threw
them upon him as he ran about the post to escape his tormentors.
Soon the ground was a mass of burning coals beneath his feet.
234
"Girty! Girty! " called the colonel in tones of agony, "shoot me to
the heart and end this torture."
Girty laughed in a heartless manner and said: " How would I shoot
you ? Don't you see I have no gun ? "
Then he turned to joke with an Indian who stood beside him, ridi-
culing the sorry figure the colonel was making. Crawford walked
about the stake for a long time, praying for death. The odor of his
burning flesh filled the air, and his feet were broiling upon the coals,
but he showed no signs of weakness. A young Indian rushed in,
knocked him down and kneeling on his prostrate body tore his scalp
off. The tortured man lay as if dead on the ground. A squaw ran up
and threw a quantity of hot coals upon his bared skull and he arose
and shook them off, and then resumed his agonizing march about the
stake. His scalp was slapped against Dr. Knight's face, and the doc-
tor was told that he would be treated in the same fashion at the Shaw-
nee town next evening. For three hours Colonel Crawford walked in
his fiery trial and then he fell. No further tortures could bring him
to his feet, so the coals of the great fire were heaped above his body and
it was totally consumed. Dr. Knight escaped that evening and brought
the story to Pittsburg.
In the spring of 1782 Col. William Caldwell, of Detroit, estabhshed
his headquarters among the Miamis and Delawares where Piqua, Ohio,
now stands. His lieutenants were McKee, Elliot, and Simon Girty.
They had a force of 1,100 Indians at hand, and 300 more within a day's
march. Captain Joseph Brant, of Detroit, was also with this army.
In July they made a raid into Kentucky and attacked Bryan's Station,
but could not capture it. Col. John Todd, a Kentuckian, started, with
150 Kentuckians, to relieve the garrison, but the siege had already
been raised. Todd and his men came upon the enemy at Blue Lick
Springs on August 19, and fell into an ambush. Seventy riien were
killed on the spot and seven were taken prisoners, while the British
and Indians lost but eleven men. That fall General Clark made a raid
into the Shawnee towns and destroyed the villages at Piqua and Lori-
mer's trading post at the mouth of the Miami. His 150 rangers lost
but one man killed, and they killed ten Indians and took seven prison-
ers. For some time thereafter the Indians could not be induced to
attack American settlers.
Girty's suspicions of the Moravians were not allayed; he had a
horror of capture by the Americans, knowing that he would be exe-
235
cuted as a traitor. In March, 1782, he led another company to the
Moravian settlements and hurried the missionaries to the mouth of
the Sandusky River and from there they were taken to Detroit in
ships. This time they were treated kindly, but De Peyster said they
must not remain longer in their settlements on the Ohio border; that
they could either settle in the Michigan region north of Detroit, or
they could go back to their towns in Central Pennsylvania. Their
Indian followers, by direction of the Indian agents, had been scattered
as much as possible, but a few came to Detroit to join the missionaries.
The latter were David Zeisberger, Jacob Jungman, Gottlieb Senseman,
John Heckevvelder, John Bull, William Edwards, Michael Jung and
others. They discussed the proposition made by De Peyster, and de-
cided to settle in and about Detroit. As the Moravian Indians pre-
ferred to remain in Detroit, Heckewelder and Senseman remained
with them at first, while the others went up to Lake St. Clair and
made a new settlement on the south side of the Clinton River near the
present site of Mt. Clemens. They named the settlement New Gnaden-
hutten, in memory of their abandoned settlement in the Ohio valley.
Here they remained until 1786, preaching the gospel to both whites
and Indians. Meanwhile the Chippewa Indians resented their settling
on these lands, which they claimed to belong to that tribe. The Chip-
pewas were willing that the Moravians should settle there during the
war, but now that peace was restored they must depart. Major
Ancram, the British commandant at Detroit from 1784 to 1786, sus-
tained the claim of the Chippewas and told the missionaries not to
clear any more land. When they were leaving, Heckewelder asked
several leading Detroiters, among whom was John Askin, to intercede
with Major Ancram to have their property protected, as their settle-
ment of nearly sixty families, exclusive of the missionaries, owned
twenty-four log houses, and a number of persons were waiting there
intending to occupy them after their departure. The missionary asked
for compensation for the houses and other improvements. Major
Ancram and John Askin, in a joint letter, said they would advance
^200 on the prospective sale of the houses, and that persons would be
detached to take charge of the property untillt was sold. They were
also guarantied protection and safe conduct to their destination when
they left the settlement. The Moravians left New Gnadenhutten in
twenty-two canoes on April 20, 1786, and came to Detroit; they left
Detroit on April 28, on the sloops Beaver and Mackinaw, and after four
236
weeks' tossing about in Lake Erie storms, reached the mouth of Cuya-
hoga River, at the present site of the city of Cleveland. Here they
built several bark canoes, and traversing the Cuyahoga and Tuscara-
was Rivers, they finally reached old Gnadenhutten, in what is now
Tuscarawas county, near New Philadelphia, Ohio. Congress bestowed
upon them three tracts of 4,000 acres and at that place. They lived
there until about 1807 when the influx of white settlers and traders,
and their whisky, demoralized their Indian converts. The settlement
was then removed to River Raisin, in Ohio. Its after history may be
learned in works devoted to the subject. At the present day the de-
nomination has over 100,000 communicants and its theological head-
quarters are at Bethlehem, Pa., and at Salem, N. C.
Father Potier, the Jesuit in charge of the Huron mission of Detroit
at Sandwich, was very feeble in the spring of 1781. On July 16, while
in his study, he was attacked by vertigo and fell down. His head
struck an andiron in the. fireplace, his skull was fractured and he died
without regaining consciousness. Commandant De Peyster, following
his instructions in regard to the Jesuit property, immediately seized
everything at the mission, including the priest's papers, hoping to
acquire valuable information in regard to the French element and their
relations with the Indians, but he was unsuccessful. It was found that
Father Potier, anticipating such action, had sold all the lands of the
mission, which had been granted by the Indians, including the church,
mission house and burying ground, to Francois Pratt, one of his parish-
ioners, taking a mortgage running to the Company of Jesus. This
mortgage in the course of time was paid to Francis Xavier Hubert,
vicar-general of Detroit, and afterward bishop of Quebec. The church
and cemetery were both deeded to the church several years afterward.
The papers seized did not contain the information sought by the British
commandant. It was found that Father Potier had removed the leaves
of his private diary, which referred to events in 1761-63, and thus the
curiosity of the commandant was balked. The death of the pious and
able priest ended the Huron mission of Detroit. The later history of
the Hurons has been already related in this book.
When peace was declared in 1783, Girty was ordered to call all the
chiefs of eleven Indian nations to Detroit. De Peyster told them that the
war was over and that they should now bury the hatchet. Presents
were sent to all the tribes, and while McKee and Elliott became Indian
agents, Girty became an interpreter at the post of Detroit. In 1784
237
he married Catherine Malott, whose parents and brother and sister, as
before related, had been butchered on the Ohio during the wars.
They settled upon a piece of land about a mile and a half below Fort
Maiden (Amherstburg), near the mouth of the Detroit River.
It is a characteristic of the British that they never yield territorial
possessions with good grace. The terms of the treaty of Versailles sur-
rendered Detroit and Michigan to the Americans, and it gave to the
Americans the sole privilege of purchasing lands from the western
Indians within certain limits. When the British had reviewed the
treaty they considered that they had surrendered too much. The vast
extent of the western territory was not realized by the commissioners
who signed the treaty, but was better known in this country. Although
no protest against the terms of the treaty already signed could be made
by the British with any show of propriety, there were pretexts at hand
which gave them an excuse for holding fast to Detroit, Mackinaw,
Niagara, Oswego and Fort Miami on the Maumee, while they endeav-
ored to push their claims for other territory which they had already
surrendered.
CHAPTER XXXII.
Great Britain's Motives for Ignoring the Treaty of Peace — Determined to Hold the
Border Posts from Which to Renew the War on the Colonists — Why They Held
Detroit Unjustly for Thirteen Years.
The generally accepted theory among American authorities is that
the excuses made by the British for not carrying out their treaty agree-
ments were merely pretexts to cover their determined purpose to re-
tain possession of Detroit and the Northwest. The reasons were
apparent. By holding this territory they controlled the lucrative fur
trade, which was a virtual monopoly in the hands of the Hudson Bay
Company and the merchants of Montreal. The representatives of
their interests in London were in close touch with the British govern-
ment, which is always solicitous for the advancement of trade — a na-
tion's chief strength. The retention of the Northwest would also give
a vantage ground from which to renew the war against the colonies.
The English never give up a project until after they are defeated, and
238
sometimes not then, and there was a strong sentiment at home that
this territory should be reclaimed by the mother country. Above all
things it would enable the British to retain the support of the Indians,
who could be depended on to fight England's battles in the event of war.
That this object was not only entertained, but that it succeeded, is evi-
denced by the fact that the Indians of the West, within the American
territory, were the allies of the 'British in the war of 1812. In this
struggle England's savage contingent committed some of the most
devilish atrocities in the annals of so-called civilized warfare. There is
also damning evidence that the English incited the Indians against the
American white settlers, and were responsible for the most horrible
crimes against men, women and children. It is shown by official
records that as far back as 1778 the redskins were being urged to vio-
lence by the infamous Simon Girty and other agents, and that under
Girty's orders they assisted in bringing guns to Detroit for the pur-
pose of strengthening the British position. In 1793, prompted by the
same power behind the throne, the general council of Indians declared
that they would not believe that the United States intended to do
them justice unless it was agreed that Ohio should be the boundary line
between them and the Indian territory of the Northwest. This was in
accordance with the British policy of having a " buffer state " next to
their own dominions in America, which could be controlled in the
British interests. The American government would not acquiesce in
this proposition to alienate the Northwest, because it knew that it was
inspired by Great Britain.
Why this section was not evacuated by the British in compliance with
the treaty of 1783, has ever since been a subject of controversy and has
not yet been determined. It was among the stipulations of that treaty
that Great Britain should be allowed a reasonable time within which to
withdraw her forces from this country, but even the most radical de-
fenders of the British policy do not attempt to claim that her action
was justified under this provision. It took eight years to drive British
soldiers from the United States, and that Great Britain should take
thirteen years to completely withdraw from the victorious country,
seemed to be an arrogant breach of faith. The contention made by
the British and their defenders ever since has been that the United
States had failed to comply with the requirements of the treaty. A
special count in this charge was that British merchants were creditors
of merchants in this country ; that the new government had agreed in
239
the treaty to guarantee the payment of these debts ; that several States
had refused to comply with this agreement because they had no con-
stitutional right to do so ; and because of all this the British government
rightly refused to surrender the sovereignty of the northwest territory
until the British merchants were paid or secured. The excuse of the
American merchants and others for not paying their British debts was
that slaves which had been taken from some of the settlers by the Brit-
ish, were to be restored, but the return had not been made. Baron
Steuben, who was a close friend of Washington, was dispatched on
diplomatic service to Quebec, to secure an adjustment of the existing
disputes. Baron Steuben asked for the fulfillment of the treaty by the
surrendering of the forts in the lake country, Detroit, Niagara and
Oswego, but he was coolly informed that Great Britain had concluded
to hold them because when the treaty was signed the commission-
ers had not understood that so much valuable territory was being sur
rendered. Steuben had intended to proceed up the lakes and take
formal possession, but Sir Frederick Haldimand, governor at Quebec,
refused to grant him passports. The purpose of the British was then
unmasked, and the old practices were resorted to of setting the Indians
upon the American settlers. This engendered a bitterness which not
only led to a sharp diplomatic correspondence, but in 1794 made a
second war imminent.
In 1782, when the fortune of war had turned in favor of the Ameri-
can cause, the Iroquois, who had fought for the British, were greatly
disheartened. Their employers had promised to drive the Americans
away from the Indian territory they had seized, and to place the orig-
inal owners again in possession. When the inability of the British to
do this became apparent the Indians reproached Governor Haldimand
and his agents, saying that the Americans were about to win their in-
dependence and become rulers of the country. In that case the
Iroquois would forever lose their lands and the Americans would cer-
tainly wreak vengeance upon them for the part they had taken. The
Oneidas, on the other hand, they said, had done no fighting, but they
had been given a safe refuge at Fort Stanwix and Schenectady, when
they were attacked by Joseph Brant and the rest of the Indians of the
Six Nations in 1780. Brant had destroyed their villages, but they
would be restored to their lands and could soon rebuild, while the
other five nations would be outcasts. In 1783, when the American set-
tlers had begun to flock into the Ohio valley, the Indians were in-
THOMAS BERRY.
formed at a council, by the British agents, that the Americans were
preparing to invade their country to kill off the game and to drive the
aborigines, who were rightful owners, out of their possessions. The
agents said the Americans were plotting to deprive the Indians of the
protection of their great father, the king of England. The character
given the "Yankees" by the British agents was far from flattering,
and when the council broke up its members went home to inflame the
prejudice and hatred of their people. The British agents promised
them arms and ammunition, to be delivered at Detroit, and rewards
were to be paid for the scalps of American settlers who were found
north of the Ohio or west of New York. Spain was brought into the
quarrel as a sort of ally to Great Britain. The Americans were for-
bidden the right to navigate the Mississippi River, and when the right
was insisted upon, Spanish agents were sent into the Indian country
to aid in perfecting an Indian confederacy, which, it was believed,
would prevent all attempts to extend the colonies westward. Alex-
ander McKee, the British Indian agent, was entrusted with the task of
uniting the northern tribes in a confederacy. He painted himself like
an Indian and donned the Indian garb to impress upon the Indians
that he was their friend and brother. Each tribe he visited was in-
formed that all the other tribes were in arms ready for a descent upon
the settlements of Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky. All the horrors of
Revolutionary days were to be repeated and the savage dogs of war
were to be set upon the settlers once more.
Again Detroit became the emporium for hatchets and guns, powder
and ball, red-handled scalping knives and rum, and these were dealt
out to the Indians with a lavish hand. Hunters were sent out against
the noblest of game and were promised rewards for human scalps.
During the days of the Revolution there was a secret understanding
between the variovis commandants at Detroit and the merchant-justice,
Dejean, and in consequence there was no report of the revenues of the
post. In 1784 Henry Hamilton, the ex-commandant, was ordered to
prepare a statement of all the revenues of that period, and his report
to Governor General Haldimand says: " I have the honor to enclose to
your excellency the best statement I have been able to procure of the
territorial and casual revenues collected at Detroit between April, 1775,
and April, 1782, amounting to ;^2,729 2s. Gd., New York currency, oi
_^1,535 2s. Sd. sterling; as required in the words of Major Matthews's
letter of October, 1782."
241
De Pe)'-ster was ver}'- well satisfied with his command at Detroit,
where he also succeeded in holding all the revenues, and he wanted to
remain permanently at the post. But Lieutenant Jehu Hay, who was
stationed at Niagara, had family influence, which, in 1782, had secured
his appointment as lieutenant-governor of Detroit, making him the
superior of De Peyster. The latter was a man of considerable ability
and far above Hay in rank. The contemplated change provided that
De Peyster was to be continued in the position of commandant, but he
rallied his friends to his support and they remonstrated with Governor
Haldimand, saying that it would be ridiculous to put a half-pay lieu-
tenant and a man of no apparent ability in authority over a colonel of
the British army, who had done long service for the king. De Peyster
by various machinations managed to hold to his position for more than
a year after his successor was appointed. In the fall of 1783 he was
transferred to Niagara and Hay was ordered to Detroit, as it was evi-
dent that the two officers never could be at peace. Hay started for
Detroit, but was taken sick with malarial fever and went to Montreal
instead, where he remained until the following summer. He came to
his command in 1784 and proceeded to file charges against his prede-
cessor. Commandant De Peyster was charged with official neglect of
duty, incompetence and crookedness. The charges stated that De Peys-
ter had permitted certain residents to inclose lands adjoining their prop-
erty upon payment of a fee; that he had neglected the fortifications so
that the whole river front of the palisades had fallen outward and floated
off down the river, compelling the erection of a new front to the fort at
considerable expense. He was also charged with permitting large quan
titles of wood to be piled close to the walls of the fort, thereby endanger-
ing its security. De Peyster, in a letter written to Governor Haldimand
from Niagara, on October 27, 1784, replied in detail. The lands inclosed
were fenced by his order, he said. They were situated on a hill near
the fort, immediately back of a row of houses, and had long been a
dumping ground for rubbish and a resort for drunken Indians. He
had ordered them inclosed to get rid of a nuisance and had received no
fee from adjoining property owners. This he asserted "on the honor
of a gentleman," High water in the river he said had washed away
the palisades before the damage of the freshet could be prevented, and
he had allowed settlers to pile their wood on the high ground about the
fort in order to prevent it from being washed away in the flood. But
it is a notable fact that Detroit River is not subject to floods, and
242
either the season alluded to was an unusual one, or De Peyster's verac-
ity may justly be questioned. Hay did not succeed in ruining De Pey-
ster, but the crown demanded and reserved the revenues of the post so
that his office was less profitable than he had anticipated. His disap-
pointment so preyed upon him that in the fall of 1785 he had another
attack of malarial fever and died just thirteen months after his arrival.
Col. Arent Schuyler De Peyster was a great-grandson of Johannes
De Peyster, a Huguenot refugee who settled on Manhattan Island un-
der Dutch rule in a very early day and died there in 1685. Colonel
De Peyster was born in New York in 1736. Although of French an-
cestry and American birth, he was always attached to the British cause.
He was a soldier in the British army during the last days of the seven
years war, which resulted in the downfall of the French. His siding
with the British against the people of his own blood was probably due
in part to the religious feeling, for the descendants of the Huguenots
seldom forgot the persecutions of their ancestors at the hands of the
Catholic French, and they no doubt found the society of the Protestant
English more congenial. His American birth and French ancestry in
part explain why De Peyster was not made lieutenant-governor at De-
troit, and why the office was given to Jehu Hay, an inferior soldier of
British connections. De Peyster was a man of education and consider-
able refinement; he had a taste for literature and his accomplished
lady was the social leader in Detroit during the years of their residence
at this place. Soon after the close of the war of the Revolution he left
Niagara and w^ent to Dumfries, Scotland. At the close of the French
Revolution, which was followed by the rise of Napoleon, the British
people were constantly expecting a French invasion and every town
had its body of militia. De Peyster became an officer and a drill mas-
ter of the Dumfries soldiers in 1796, when he made the acquaintance
of a tall, swarthy, black-eyed recruit named Robert Burns. The poet
and the soldier became fast friends in spite of their difference in social
rank.
When Burns was stricken with his last illness and was confined to his
bed De Peyster sent daily to inquire after his welfare, and this atten-
tion pleased the poet so much he wrote his last verses; "A Poem on
Life," directed to his commander. The first stanza reads:
" My honored Colonel, deep 1 feel
Your interest in the poet's weal.
Ah ! sma' heart ha'e I now to speel
243
The steep Parnassus
Surrounded thus by bolus, pill
And potion glasses. "
De Peyster was himself a poet of some pretensions, having published
a small volume of verses. He also conducted a political controversy
with Burns in the Dumfries Journal. De Peyster died at Dumfries in
1832.
In the year 1784 a Mr. Brass came from the east and erected a saw
mill and grist mill at Detroit. The expense was borne by govern-
ment and Governor Haldimand paid ^485 New York currency, or
about $1,200, for the two jobs.
CHAPTER XXXIH.
Indian Wars Following the Revolution — British Influence Causes Constant Vio-
lations of Treaties — Disastrous Campaigns of Gen. Josiah Harmar and Gen. Arthur
St. Clair— Mad Anthony Wayne Wins a Signal Victory— 1784-1792.
In 1784 murders were common in all the region about Pittsburg,
and Indian raids from Detroit were frequent. Col. Josiah Harmar, of
the Continental army, was ordered to mass a strong force of Pennsyl-
vania rangers at Fort Pitt in 1784, and to call a council with the Indians
of the West for the purpose of restoring peace on the border. The
troops were to serve as a guard for Arthur Lee, Richard Butler and
George Rogers Clark, the treaty commissioners appointed by Congress.
Messages were sent to all the tribes asking their chiefs to come to the
council, but McKee and Elliott warned the British at Detroit that peace
would be followed by an encroachment of American settlers, and these
agents were sent in company with Simon Girty to dissuade the Indians
from making a treaty. A treaty was finally made with the Wyan-
dottes, Delawares, Chippewas and Ottawas, and signed at Fort Mcin-
tosh on the Ohio, in January, 1785. The British agents kept the
Shawnees, Cherokees, Senecas or Mingoes, and the Miamis from join-
ing, and stirred them up to renew hostilities against the Americans.
The Cherokees made a raid down the Scioto, Hocking, Muskingum and
Tuscarawas valleys in September, 1785. In November another coun-
244
cil was called by Congress at the mouth of the Miami River, but Simon
Girty and Colonel Caldwell, of Detroit, worked against it among the
Indians, The Americans built a fort called Fort Finney at the mouth
of the Miami River, and on February 1 another treaty was signed.
By the terms of this treaty the Shawnees were allotted all the territory
lying between the Miami and the Wabash Rivers and south of the ter-
ritory of the Miamis and Wyandottes. It was agreed that no settlers
were to encroach in this region. No sooner had the treaty been
signed than McKee, Elliott and Girty went into the Wabash valley to
persuade the Indians that they had been robbed by the terms of the
treaty, and in the spring of 1786, two months after the signing of the
treaty, the Shawnees were on the war path in pursuit of settlers in the
Scioto and Hocking valleys. This kind of see-sawing made too much
work for the British Indian agents. They saw that the Indians were
inclined to make peace with the settlers, so in June they gathered forty
chiefs of the various nations and went with them to Niagara to confer
with Sir John Johnson, son of the late Sir William. Sir John told the
Indians if they continued living independently and making war as in-
dependent tribes, they would soon be exterminated. Their only hope
for preservation against the encroachments of the Americans was to
organize as one nation. In that case, he said, they would be great in
peace or war. His language was vague and diplomatic, but the In-
dians understood it as advising them to make a general war upon
the American settlers in order to preserve themselves from destruction.
Then Joseph Brant, the great Mohawk chief, also known as Thayan-
danega, made a tour of Canada and gathered up another lot of chiefs
at Niagara to listen to Sir John Johnson's words of wisdom. Brant
was a well educated Indian, having received his schooling at the ex-
pense of Sir William Johnson, at Willoughby, Conn. He held a com-
mission as captain in the British army and was a man of ability. At
the conclusion of this conference the forty chiefs were loaded with
presents and supplied liberally with rum, while Girty, Elliott, McKee
and Colonel Caldwell were granted tracts of land at the mouth of the
Detroit River near the present site of Amherstburg. A third council
was afterward held in the British interest, at the Huron village on De-
troit River (Sandwich). Representatives of the Iroquois or Six Na-
tions, and the Wyandottes, Ottawas, Miamis, Shawnees, Cherokees,
Chippewas, Potawatomies and Wabashes were present at this assembly,
which took place December 18, 1786. There a memorial was pre-
345
pared by the British representatives to be presented to the American
Congress. It pledged the several tribes to peace forever, providing
there should be no further influx of settlers into the western territory.
Even the chiefs had some misgivings as to the good faith of this docu-
ment, so each man signed the totem of his tribe instead of signing his
individual mark. The memorial came to naught, as its purpose was
plainly apparent
During the summer of 1786 Benjamin Logan, a Kentucky pioneer,
led a raid through the villages of the Shawnees, who had so soon
broken their treaty, and captured eighty prisoners besides killing
twenty of their warriors.
In 1787 the American government held out various inducements to
soldiers of the late war if they would settle in the Ohio valley and the
tributary country, which was at that time ceded to the government by
Virginia and Connecticut. There was no cessation of murder or mas-
sacre, however. Between the years 1783 and 1790 over 1,500 men,
women and children were slaughtered by savages and their scalps were
brought to Detroit. Congress saw that a heavy blow must be struck
at the allied Indians and British, or the war of extermination would go
on indefinitely. It became necessary for the settlers and the British
to come together once more in a death grapple in order to secure
peace.
Gen. Josiah Harmar, a distinguished Pennsylvania officer, was
'authorized to collect an army and make a raid against the hostiles in
1789. He was better adapted for civilized warfare than Indian fight-
ing, but when he had mustered a motley crew of 1,400 men he thought
he was marching to a certain victory. General Knox, secretary of war,
foolishly sent word to the British at Detroit that a war was to be waged
against Indians only; the British immediately notified the Indians and
equipped them for the conflict. Harmar's force was badly clothed, ill
fed and poorly armed, and there was little discipline among his troops.
When the Indians retired beyond the Wabash, Harmar began to fear
they would not make a stand against him. He finally encountered the
Indians in large numbers where the city of Fort Wayne, Ind., now
stands. They surprised his camp, routed the undisciplined soldiers,
and many were left dead on the field. Harmar retired in disgrace to
Fort Washington — the present site of Cincinnati. Success made the In-
dians all the fiercer and the settlers of the West were panic stricken at
their plight.
24G
General St. Clair was called to Washington's home and the president
gave him careful advice in regard to fighting Indians. He furnished
him with a force of 2,300 regulars, who had fought in the Revolution,
and told him to fortify himself in every possible way against disaster
by building a line of forts across the west side of the Ohio territory,
extending from the mouth of the Big Miami to the mouth of the Miami
of the Lakes, or the Maumee. Above all things he was instructed to
keep his pickets well extended, so as to guard against surprise. St. Clair
was a victim of the gout and was hardly fit for the trust. On Novem-
ber 3, 1791, he arrived at the junction of the St. Joseph and St. Mary's
Rivers in Indiana, near the Ohio border. Next day his army was
beset on every side with Indians led by Little Turtle, chief of the
Miamis, and a force of British from Detroit. The American officers
formed their men in line of battle at close range in the open field, and
they were mowed down rapidly by their foes, who were concealed in
high grass and behind fallen trees. The American officers were picked
off first and the soldiers were soon left without commanders. A great
panic ensued. The militia, which had been in the rear acting as a re-
serve, were flanked and driven in upon the front. Many soldiers threw
away their guns and fled, only to be shot down and scalped. Out of a
force of 1,400 men, 593 were killed or missing, and 38 officers and 242
privates were wounded. Nothing but the bravery of Colonels Butler
and Darke and Major Clark saved the entire army from extermina-
tion. Each of these officers plunged into the thick of the fight and
rallied the scattering soldiers. Butler was shot through the arm and
leg, but fought until another bullet pierced his abdomen when he fell
mortally wounded. Simon Girty and the Indians came upon him as
he lay in agony on the field, and he begged Girty to kill him and put
him out of his misery. Girty called a savage to his side, who readily
drove his tomahawk into the dying man's brain. The Indians gathered
about the corpse of the brave man Butler, who had won their admiration
by his conduct in that awful hour, and they divided his heart into
pieces, giving one piece to each tribe present. Not a horse was left
alive and the artillery was abandoned. A poet soldier who accom-
panied the expedition wrote an epic on the subject of this battle, of
which one verse is enough :
" ' Twas November the Fourth in the year 1791
We had a sore engagement near to Fort Jefferson ;
St. Clair was our commander, which may remembered be.
For there we left 900 men in the western territory."
247
Washington was much incensed when he heard of the carelessness
which had caused such an appalHng disaster. Next year Gen. An-
thony Wayne, commander-in chief of the American army, was sent
against the Indians. The best officers of the army had been killed in
the two previous engagements, and the volunteers regarded another
war as inviting certain disaster. While General Wayne was at Pitts-
burg enlisting men and drilling them for the contest, Secretary of War
Knox suggested that he invite the Indians to a treaty council. He did
so, but the Indians were flushed with victory and would not listen.
Secretary Knox became panic stricken, and fearing that Wayne would
also be defeated, begged of him not to invite a conflict. In May, 1793,
General Wayne led his half drilled soldiers to Fort Washington (Cin-
cinnati), where he enlisted some Kentucky rangers. Peace negotia-
tions having failed, he advanced his army to Fort Jefferson, seventy
miles up the Miami, October 6, and a week later he was established at
Greenville, six miles further on. There he passed the winter amid
great hardships, as his provision trains were sometimes captured by
the Indians and the escorts slaughtered. In order to educate his men
to the serious business at hand and train them in Indian warfare, Gen-
eral Wayne sent out a party to bury the dead who fell on St. Clair's
battlefield. Then he built a fort on the site and called it Fort Re-
covery. Every moment his men were on the alert against a surprise,
and the Indians began to fear the new commander, whom they called
"The Blacksnake," because of his swiftness and cunning. They
talked of peace to the British, but the latter scoffed them out of the
notion, and braced up their courage with rum and tales of their former
prowess. Wayne was now near the Miami fort, which was held by a
British garrison. Washington authorized him, if it should become
necessary, to attack the fort and dislodge the garrison, although the
two nations were ostensibly at peace. On June 30 a small body of
Indians, led by British soldiers disguised as Indians, attacked a party
of dragoons or mounted riflemen. They were repulsed and next day a
messenger came to General Wayne and said the Indians would like to
make peace. Wayne demanded a surrender of all their prisoners as
an evidence of good faith, and the negotiations ceased. On July 10
General Scott arrived with more Kentucky rangers, and Wayne ad-
vanced close to Fort Miami, the British post, where he built a work
and named it Fort Defiance, It was situated at a point where the Mau-
mee receives the waters of the Au Glaize River.
248
MERRILL B. MILLS.
August 20, 1792, found everything in readiness for a decisive battle.
The enemy were believed to be entrenched in strong force not far
away, and at eight o'clock that morning General Price's corps formed
a skirmish line, and deploying in front of the army, advanced down
the west bank of the Maumee River. For five miles they picked their
way with care amid a perfect silence. Suddenly puffs of smoke came
from the tall grass along the enemy's front and several of the skir-
mishers fell. The enemy were drawn out in battle array three lines
deep. Their left rested on the river bank and their right stretched
away for a distance of two miles into the forest. Some time before, a
tornado had swept over the forest and the trees had been thrown down
in great confusion, forming the best possible covert for Indian war-
fare. It was impossible to send the mounted men against them in this
position, but General Wayne mapped out his plan of battle while the
skirmishers were falling back to the support of the main body. The
Indians tried to turn his left flank but were balked. General Scott
was sent around to the enemy's right with his mounted rangers, mak-
ing a long detour to get clear of the fallen timber and intending to fall
upon the Indian flank or rear. Capt. Robert Campbell was sent along
the river bank to turn the enemy's left. As soon as these were dis-
patched Wayne ordered his men in front to advance at double quick
with trailed arms and to drive the enemy from the grass and trees
with the bayonet. When they were dislodged the soldiers were to fire
at close range. So well and so swiftly was the last order executed that
the Indians were flying in a panic before the flanking parties were pre-
pared to strike. The British and Canadians were driven out of their
concealment and joined in the flight. A force of 2,000 were flying
from an attacking party of only 900. Then General Scott came upon
the retreat, and his rangers made havoc with sword and bayonet.
Wayne advanced to within pistol shot of Fort Miami, while the enemy
was scattering panic stricken in all directions. In his report of the
fight the commander makes honorable mention of Col. John Francis
Hamtramck, who took command of Campbell's division when the latter
was shot down.. General Wilkinson, Captains De Butts and Lewis,
Lieutenant Harrison and Adjutant Mills. The woods for a distance
of more than a mile were filled with the dead Indians and Canadians.
British guns and bayonets were scattered along the line of flight.
General Wayne stayed three days on the field and destroyed the houses
and crops about the British post. Among the property destroyed was
249
the house and stores of Captain McKee, the British Indian agent. It
was reported that reinforcements for the Indians were expected from
Niagara, and Wayne waited, hoping the enemy would make another
stand and give him another battle. During the fight General Wayne
was suffering from a severe attack of gout and his swollen legs were
swathed in flannels as they lifted him to his saddle. He soon forgot
his pain and was dashing about everywhere, stirring the soldiers on
the pursuit. Several days afterward Capt, Joseph Brant tried to re-
inforce the British Indians and lead them into another battle, but they
had a surfeit of fighting. Mad Anthony Wayne had inspired them
with terror, and they willingly signed a treaty at Greenville in 1795,
making very humble submission to the American government. The
blow had been struck which settled the fate of Detroit, as the British
could no longer urge the Indians against the Americans. In the fol-
lowing winter John Jay, minister to Great Britain, secured from the
British government an agreement by which the disputed forts, Detroit,
Niagara, Mackinaw, Oswego, and Fort Miami on the Maumee, were to
be surrendered to the Americans and all claims upon the territory
were to be given up.
Although the British government had refused to carry out the terms
of the treaty, which surrendered the right of purchase and settlement
in the region west of Pennsylvania and north of the Ohio, the Ameri-
can Congress went ahead with legislation, assuming that this territory
must eventually be surrendered. Previous to 1780 Virginia, Connecti-
cut, New York and Massachusetts had each laid claim to the disputed
lands; but each of these States being unable to take possession through
their own powers, ceded their claims to the Federal government before
1787. As soon as this was done Congress began to prepare for posses-
sion, and in 1787 a code of special laws was passed to govern the vast
region, which was called the Northwest Territory. These laws were
prepared by Nathan Dane, an eminent legal authority of Massachusetts
and founder of the Dane Law School at Harvard, and Rev. Manasseh
Cutler. Dr. Cutler was negotiating at that time for the purchase of a
tract of 1,500,000 acres of land in the Ohio region, and he was anxious
that law and order should be enforced, and that slavery should be ex-
cluded from the western country. On October 16, 1787, as soon as legis-
lation was provided for the Northwest Territory, President Washington
appointed Gen. Arthur St. Clair as governor, Winthrop Sargent as
secretary, and Samuel Holden Parsons, James Mitchell Varnum, and
250
John Armstrong as judges. Armstrong resigned February 19, 1788,
and the vacancy was filled by John C. Symmes, The governor and
judges were authorized to prepare such laws as became necessary for
the government of the Northwest Territory, but in strict conformity with
the National Constitution. At first the new territory comprised the
present States of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and part
of Minnesota.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
The British Evacuate Detroit, July 11, 1796— The Victory of General Wayne is
Followed by the Jay Treaty — Death of General Wayne — The Northwest Territory
Created before Possession was Secured by the Americans — Winthrop Sargent Gives
the Name of Wayne County to a Great Territory.
It was Monda}^ July 11, 1796, and the scene was the British military
post of Detroit. The sun rose brightly over the little town. Fort Ler-
noult, and the broad expanse of the beautiful river. At the first notes
of the bugle that sounded forth the reveille the banner of St. George —
the meteor flag of England — was given to the breeze, the main gate or
entrance to the fort was opened, and red-coated sentinels were seen on
guard. The few privates left in the fort fell into ranks and answered
to their names, and then dispersed to get their breakfasts and help pack
up. There was to be no guard-mounting that day. All around could
be seen wagons loaded with household goods and military supplies, for
the " flitting " had commenced several days before, and the work of
building Fort Maiden, at Amherstburg, had been going on for several
weeks. On the ramparts several officers conversed in groups, apparently
on a subject of engrossing interest, and the massive form of Col. Rich-
ard England appeared on the scene. Telescopes were brought out and
the river below was scanned with interest. Everybody in Detroit knew
that, by the terms of the Jay treaty, the fort and its dependencies were
surrendered by England to the United States, and that possession was
to be given on July 1. But from several causes the United States troops
had not come to claim their own. In the intervening days some evil-
disposed soldiers or others had destroyed several of the windmills that
lay on the river bank, and did some other mischievous acts, but these
251
were not probably sanctioned by the commandant, who was a gentle-
man and an old and experienced soldier.
It was about ten o'clock when the telescope discovered two vessels
coming around the bend of the river below the town. The flags were
not at first distinguishable, but in a short time they became plainer to
the lookers and the word went round: " The Yankees are coming! "
Nearer and nearer came the two vessels, which were small schooners,
each flying the Stars and Stripes. At this time a number of officers
and men went down to the king's wharf, which then projected about
150 feet into the river at the foot of Shelby street. At the wharf were
several loaded vessels, all ready to clear. The American vessels tacked
in and were fastened to the wharf, around which were gathered a
motley group of Indians, soldiers and white settlers. There is no
record of how the small American advance force was received It was
strictly on a peace footing, for it numbered only sixty-five men. The
two vessels also contained several cannon, ammunition and provisions,
the whole being nnder the command of Capt. Moses Porter. Being
officers and gentlemen, it is more than probable that Colonel England and
his subordinates received them at the wharf with courtesy and good
feeling. That the latter feeling predominated is certainly true, for the
records show that the British commissary at Chatham loaned fifty pounds
of pork to the United States commissary for the use of the troops.
Meanwhile the only one to show emotion was the renegade, Simon
Girty, the miscreant who had laughed when Crawford, the American
officer, was being burned at the stake by the Indians near Sandusky.
He seemed anxious to leave what was now American territory, and too
impatient to wait for the ferry boat, he spurred his horse into the river
and swam it over to Canada. On the bank on the opposite side he
stopped and furiously cursed the American government and its soldiers.
Like Marmion, when he had got outside of the Douglas castle,
" His shout of loud defiance pours,
And shook his gauntlet at the towers."
Then came the ceremony of taking possession. The sixty-five
United States troops formed and marched up the hill to the fort.
They were probably received by the few British troops that were left,
with military honors. The British flag came down at noon, and then
the starry banner of the free was hoisted and Detroit and the North-
west became United States territory. A letter written by Colonel
252
England a few days later, on Bois Blanc Island, at the mouth of the
Detroit River, shows that he was in Detroit at the time of the evacua-
tion. There was certainly no reason why he should not be present at
that time. The two nations were at peace and the evacuation was the
result of ah amicable treaty, and it would have been boorish and dis-
courteous for him to be absent. On the 13th came Col. John Francis
Hamtramck, who was in command of this post until the arrival of his
superior officer, "Mad Anthony" Wayne, who came in September.
It was fitting that General Wayne should be authorized to make official
visits to all the posts, and after he had received the thanks of Congress
he began his tour in the month of June, 1796, in the capacity of civil
commissioner as well as commander-in-chief. The Indians loved a
brave man and they received him at Detroit with great enthusiasm
when he arrived in September. The brave warrior's work was done.
He remained at Detroit two months and then set sail for Erie, Novem-
ber 17, but while on the way was attacked by the gout again. He was
carried ashore and died at Erie, December 15, 1796. At his request
he was buried at the foot of the flagstaff on the parade ground. Years
afterwards his remains were removed to St. David's church, in Radnor,
Pa. , and when the parade ground was graded at Erie about forty years
ago, the last trace of his burial place was destroyed. General Wayne
was born in 1745 and was but forty-six years old at the time of his
death, but he had seen almost twenty years of fighting.
Little Turtle, who was in command of the Miamis in the battles
against Harmar, St. Clair, and Wayne, and was here at the time of the
evacuation, must have been a picturesque savage as well as a military
genius. His name was given not on account of his stature, for he was
said to be upward of six feet in height and powerfully built. He wore
a kilt or short skirt of bright blue flannel reaching nearly to the knee
and a coat and vest of European pattern. His Indian cap was a baggy
sort of turban which hung far down his back, and it was ornamented
with two hundred brooches of silver. He wore two rings in each ear
and from them depended strings of coins and medals twelve inches in
length, one string hanging in front of each shoulder and the others
behind. He also wore a nose jewel of large proportions. After the
battle with Wayne he became an enthusiastic admirer of his conqueror.
He died at Fort Wayne in 1812, aged sixty-five years.
In 1782 a number of British sympathizers residing in the revolted
colonies removed to Canada, the emigrants forseeing that the war was
353
going against their country, and that the lake region would probably
be the ground of a dispute, at the end of the Revolution. These emi-
grants, as a class, were of superior birth, means and education, and
they settled along the Canadian banks of the Thames, Detroit, St.
Clair and St. Lawrence Rivers, where they were styled United Empire
Loyalists. This movement, however, was not general in Detroit, for
many continued to believe that Great Britain would hold fast to the
norlhern territory. But this illusion was dispelled when Col. Ham.
tramck took possession of Detroit, in the name of the United States, in
1796. The population of Detroit numbered 2,190 in 1782, which in-
cluded 178 slaves, but it soon fell off to about 500. This was afterward
increased by the arrival of soine French immigrants, but immigration
from New York and New England did not begin until 1805, when the
population reached 2,200.
In 1792 Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe of Upper Canada organized all
the present State of Michigan and a strip of land running north as far
as Hudson Bay into the county of Kent. In August, 1796, less than a
month after the surrender of Detroit to the Americans, Secretary Win-
throp Sargent, who accompanied Gen. Anthony Wayne on his trip to
Detroit, after consulting with several prominent residents, made a
public proclamation organizing the upper and lower peninsulas of
Michigan, and a strip of Wisconsin and Illinois, completely inclosing
Lake Michigan, into the county of Wayne. General Wayne was very
grateful for this compliment and he expressed his best wishes for the
future of the new count3\ General St. Clair, governor of the North-
west Territory, was absent at Pittsburg when the proclamation was
made, but when he heard of it he was very much provoked at his sec-
retary for his presumption. The people of Detroit supported Sargent,
however, and the name stood.
The British governors who ruled over Canada and Detroit between
1760 and 1796 were eleven in number:
Sir Jeffrey Amherst ruled from 1760 to 1765 as comn^ander-in-chief.
Sir James Murray from 1765 to 1766.
Paulus Emilius Irving in 1766.
Brigadier- General Guy Carleton from 1766 to 1770.
Hector Theophilus Cramahe, 1770 to 1774.
Sir Guy Carleton (second term), 1774 to 1778.
Sir Frederick Haldimand, 1778 to 1784.
Henry Hamilton, lieutenant-governor in 1784.
254
Henry Hope, lieutenant governor in 1785.
Lord Dorchester, formerly Sir Guy Carleton (third term), 178G.
John Graves Simcoe, lieutenant-governor, 1792-96.
CHAPTER XXXV.
Isaac Weld's Description of Detroit in 1796— Two thirds of the Residents are French
— Twelve Trading Vessels Carry its Commerce — Jacob Burnett, Solomon Sibley and
other Notables Arrive.
Isaac Weld made a tour of the States and Canada in 1795-96 and in
1799 published a book. He visited Detroit in October, 1796, three
months after the evacuation of the town by the British, and his descrip-
tion is very interesting:
" Detroit contains about 300 houses," he wrote, " and is the largest town in the
western country. It stands contiguous to the river, on the top of the banks, which
are here about twenty feet high. At the bottom of them there are very extensive
wharfs for the accommodation of the shipping, built of wood, similar to those in the
Atlantic seaports. The town consists of several streets that run parallel to the river,
which are intersected by others at right angles. They are all very narrow, and not
being paved, dirty in the extreme whenever it happens to rain ; for the accommoda-
tion of passengers, however, there are footways in most of them, formed of square
logs, laid transversely close to each other. The town is surrounded by a strong stock-
ade, through which there are four gates, two of them open to the wharfs, and the
two others to the north and south side of the town respectively. The gates are de-
fended by strong block-houses, and on the west side of the town is a small fort in the
form of a square, with bastions at the angles. At each of the corners of this fort is
planted a small field piece, and these constitute the whole of the ordnance at present
in the place. The British kept a considerable train of artillery here, but the place
was never capable of holding out for any length of time against a regular force; the
fortifications, indeed, were constructed chiefly as a defense against the Indians.
" Detroit is at present the headquarters of the western army of the States; the
garrison consists of 300 men, who are quartered in barracks. Very little attention
is paid by the officers to the minutiae of discipline, so that however well the men may
have acquitted themselves in the field, they make but a poor appearance on parade.
The belles of the town are quite au desespoir at the late departure of the British
troops, though the American officers tell them they have no reason to be so, as they
will find them much more sensible and agreeable men than the British officers when
they know them, a style of conversation, which strange as it may appear to us, is yet
not at all uncommon amongst them. Three months, however, have not altered the
first opinion of the ladies. I cannot better give you an idea of the unpolished, coarse,
255
discordant manners of the generality of the officers of the western army of the States
than by telling you that they cannot agree sufficiently amongst themselves to form a
regimental mess. Repeated attempts have been made since their arrival at Detroit
to establish one, but their frequent quarrels would never suffer it to remain perma-
nent. A duelist and an officer of the western army were nearly synonymous terms
at one time, in the United States, owing to the very great number of duels that took
place amongst them when cantoned at Greenville.
" About two-thirds of the inhabitants of Detroit are of French extraction, and the
greater part of the inhabitants of the settlements on the river, both above and be-
low the town, are of the same description. The former are mostly engaged in trade
and they all appear to be much on an equality. Detroit is a place of very consider-
able trade; there are no less than twelve trading vessels, belonging t6 it, brigs,
sloops and schooners, of from fifty to one hundred tons burden each. The inland
navigation in this quarter is indeed very extensive. Lake Erie, three hundred miles
in length, being open to vessels belonging to the port, on the one side, and Lakes
Michigan and Huron, the first upwards of two hundred miles in length and fifty in
breadth, and the second no less than one thousand miles in circumference on the
opposite side ; not to speak of Lake St. Clair and Detroit River, which connect these
former lakes together, or of the many large rivers which fall into them. The stores
and shops of the town are well furnished and you may buy fine cloth, linen, etc., and
every article of wearing apparel, as good in their kind, and nearly on as reasonable
terms, as you can purchase them at New York or Philadelphia.
"The inhabitants are well supplied with provisions of every description ; the fish in
particular, caught in the river and neighboring lakes, are of a verj- superior quality.
The fish held m most estimation is a sort of large trout, called the Michilimackinac
whitefish, from its being caught mostly m the straits of that name. The inhabitants
of Detroit and the neighboring country, however, though they have provisions in
plenty, are frequently much distressed for one very necessary concomitant, namely,
salt. Until within a short time past they had no salt but what was brought from
Europe, but salt spings have been discovered in various parts of the country, from
which they are now beginning to manufacture that article for themselves. The best
and most profitable springs are retained in the hands of the government, and the
profits arising from the sale of the salt are to be paid into the treasury of the prov-
ince. Throughout the western country they procure their salt from springs, some
of which throw up sufficient water to yield several hundred bushels in the course of
one week.
"There is a large Roman Catholic church in the town of Detroit, and another on
the opposite side called the Huron church, from its having been devoted to the use
of the Huron Indians. The streets of Detroit are generally crowded with Indians
of one tribe or another, and amongst them you see numberless old squaws leading
about the daughters, ever ready to dispose of them, pro tempore, to the highest bid-
der. At night all the Indians, except such as get admittance into private houses,
and remain there quietly, are turned out of town, and the gates shut upon them.
The American officers here have endeavored to their utmost to impress upon the
minds of the Indians an idea of their own superiority over the British; but as they
are very tardy in giving these people any presents, they do not pay much attention
to their words. General Wayne, from continually promising them presents, but at
•25 G
JEREMIAH DWYER.
the same time always postponing the delivery when they come to ask for them, has
significantly been nicknamed by them General Wabang — that is, General To-morrow.
The country round Detroit is uncommonly flat, and in none of the rivers is there a
fall sufficient to turn even a grist mill. The current of the Detroit River itself is
stronger than that of any of them, and a floating mill was once invented by a
Frenchman, which was chained in the middle of the river, where it was thought the
stream would be sufficiently swift to turn the waterwheel. The building of il was
attended by considerable expense to the inhabitaats, but after it was finished it by
no means answered their expectations. They grind their corn at present by wind-
mills, which I do not remember to have seen in any other part of North America."
Jacob Burnett, a lawyer and pioneer of Cincinnati, who was for some
time a partner of Solomon Sibley in that city, also came here in 1796
in company with Arthur St. Clair, the first and only governor of the
Northwest Territory. He witnessed the taking possession of the posts,
Detroit, Mackinac and Fort Miami, and in his "Notes on the North-
western Territory," published in 1847, gave a graphic description of
the physical and social features of the region. Concerning Detroit he
said "that it had been for many years the principal depot of the fur
trade of the Northwest, and the residence of a large number of English
and Scotch merchants, who were engaged in it; and it was of course a
place of great business. The greater part of the merchants engaged
in the fur trade, both Scotch and English, had their domiciles in De-
troit, and the nature of the trade was such as to require large amounts
of capital to be profitable; because of the great distance and the im-
mense amount of country over which their furs and peltry were col-
lected, rendered it impossible to turn the capital employed more than
once a year and sometimes once in two years. The business was ex-
tremely laborious and precarious. In some seasons their profits were
enormously large; in others they were small, and occasionally they
were subjected to heavy losses. During a large portion of the year
they had to endure the fatigue and privation of the wilderness, and as
often as they returned from those laborious excursions to their families
and comfortable homes, they indulged most freely in the delicacies and
luxuries of high living. Scarcely a day passed without a dinner given
by some of them, at which the best of wine and other liquors, and the
richest viands furnished by the country and by commerce, were served
up in great profusion and in fine taste. Genteel strangers who visited
the place were generally invited to their houses and their sumptuous
tables; and although at this day, such would be considered a breach of
moral duty, as well as of good breeding, they competed with each other
257
for the honor of drinking the most, as well as the best wine, without
being intoxicated themselves, and of having at their parties the greatest
number of intoxicated guests. This revel was kept up in a greater or
less degree during the season they remained at home, as an offset to
to the privations and sufferings of their excursions into the wilderness.
At one of these sumptuous dinners given by Angus Mcintosh, the bot-
tom of every wine glass on the table had been broken off to prevent
what were called heel-taps; and during the evening many toasts were
given, which the company were required to drink in bumpers. The
writer of this narrative was one of the guests on that occasion, but,
being in very delicate and precarious health, was not required to com-
ply with the rules prescribed for others."
On the third Monday of December, 1798, Solomon Sibley, Jacobus
Visgerand Silas Wishwell, a " Yankee lawyer," were elected at Detroit
as delegates from Wayne county to the first session of the General As-
sembly of the Northwest Territory, which was held in Cincinnati on
February 4, 1799. When the result was declared Visger said that if
Wishwell was to be a delegate he (Visger) would refuse to serve. Vis-
ger must have been quite influential among the French electors, for
another election was held at which Chabert de Joncaire was elected in
place of Wishwell. The courts of the Northwest Territory were held
in Cincinnati in March, at Marietta in October, and at Detroit by spe-
cial appointment whenever circumstances required. Solomon Sibley,
Jacob Burnett and the other attorneys of those early days, had a wide,
if not a large and profitable, practice. They went from one jurisdiction
to another on horseback, carrying their legal papers and firearms.
There were few bridges and few bridlepaths in the wilderness, but they
struck out boldly with a pocket compass for a guide ; crossed vast swamps,
swam their horses across the rivers, and when they were unable to find
a lone settler's cabin at nightfall, they made a bed of hemlock boughs
beneath the protecting arms of some grand old forest tree. The howl
of the wolf, the scream of the wildcat and panther, the weird call of the
whip poor will, and the hooting of the great horned owls were their
lullaby. A fire of dead wood cooked the traveler's supper, which con-
sisted of a broiled partridge or some other small game, and this, with
some home cakes which had been stored away in the saddlebags at the
last stopping place, gave him excellent cheer. The horse, which in
that day lived in close companionship with his master, was tethered
close at hand where the grass was abundant. When the great fire had
258
sunk to a heap of glowing embers, master and steed slept peacefully
under the light of the stars, but with ears quickened by necessity, and
each would bound to his feet at the approach of danger.
In 1800 the General Court of the territories was in session at Detroit
on June 4, which was the birthday of King George III. The officers
of the garrison, the bench and bar, and many of the principal citizens
of Detroit, went to Amherstburg by invitation, and partook of the fes-
tivities of the occasion. Many of the officers of the two regiments at
Detroit accepted the invitation, but Colonel Strong, who was in com-
mand, did not attend. The judges, lawyers and principal citizens,
about one hundred in all, attended and had a good time. The enter-
tainment was splendid, the tables being richly and abundantly supplied
with the best The judges and lawyers present were invited to come
again, and when the court was over they went down to Amherstburg
again on the John Adams, a United States brig- of- war, and had a fine
supper, good wine and general jollity, and stayed there over night.
Next day they proceeded on the brig to Maumee Bay, and were landed
at the foot of the rapids, thereby avoiding the misery of traveling
through the muddy bridle paths of the Black vSwamp, between Detroit
and Toledo, which was not made passable until the '30's.
In 1800 the Northwest Territory was divided. Most of the present
State of Ohio and the eastern half of the lower peninsula of Michigan
were set off and given the name of Ohio. This necessitated a change
in the boundaries of Wayne county, for it could not be extended over
two territories, so the eastern portion of the lower peninsula, which
had been set off as a part of the Territory of Ohio, was added to nearly
one-quarter of the State of Ohio, the eastern limit being the Cuyahoga
River, and the southern boundary being placed about one hundred
miles south of Lake Erie. While this suited the people of Detroit and
Wayne county, it did not please the people of Ohio, so in the fall of
1800 a section of the lower strip was chopped off from Wayne county
and added to Ohio proper, so that the eastern boundary was near San-
dusky. Next year nearly all the territory which is now included in the
State of Ohio was cut off from Wayne county, and only a narrow strip,
including the present site of Toledo, was left. The residents of the
Ohio region organized a general assembly and began to move for a
constitutional convention, for the purpose of organizing their section
into a State and leaving Wayne county out. The Wayne county
people and some of the others objected. In the fall of 1802 a conven-
259
tion was held at Chillicothe by the people of Ohio, and a constitution
was adopted. In order to make up the requisite number of residents
for statehood, the people of Wayne county were counted in, and in
March, 1803, the State of Ohio was admitted to the Union.
Wayne county was then cut off from Ohio and attached to the pres-
ent boundaries of Indiana, and the two were organized into the Terri-
tory of Indiana. Gen. William Henry Harrison was appointed gover-
nor and Col. John Gibson secretary, and Vincennes was made the
capital of the new territory.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Early Ordinances of the New American Town — First Charter Issued in 1802 — Ex-
traordinarjr Precautions against Fire— The First Fire Department and its Divisions
of Work — A Public Market Established on the River Front — A One Man Police Force.
In 1800 Detroit was a town of about 300 houses. The entire own
was inclosed in a low stockade, which had two gates opening upon the
river front and one at the east and one at the west ends. A blockhouse
defended each gate and the fort on the hill, north of the stockade, was
defended by four six pound cannon mounted in the corner bastions.
One of the striking features of the landscape was the number of wind-
mills with their lazily revolving sails. These were all much alike in
appearance. The foundation was pyramida and built of stone, while
the upper part was a wooden tower with a conical roof. They were of
small capacity, and so a number of them were scattered along the
water front on both sides of the river, from Windmill Point on Lake
St. Clair to a point near Twenty-fourth street. The houses of
the town were solid structures of squared logs; the better class being a
story and a half in height. The gables were high, and dormer win-
dows projecting from the room lighted the upper stories. The doors
were made in upper and lower halves, after the fashion of colonial days,
so that the upper portion might be opened for air and light, while the
lower half prevente 1 the children from wandering out in the mud and
also prevented wandering pigs from entering unbidden. A huge chim-
ney stood in the center of every house, with flues opening to the kitchen
and also to the living rooms, where broad fireplaces gave out their
260
ruddy glow in the cold months of the j^ear. Even in so small a town
there were plenty of idlers, and bowling was a popular amusement in
the narrow streets. For lack of lighter balls the bowlers used six and
twelve-pound cannon balls, and pedestrians had to look lively when
they came to intersections of the streets to save their limbs from breaks
and bruises. An ordinance finally put a stop to the practice. French
pacing ponies were still the cnly horses in the settlement and they
were driven singly to rather primitive carts. Whenever two drivers of
these animals came together on the streets there was a race to decide
which had the better pony, and when two such rigs driven by greatly
excited Frenchmen came tearing down the streets side by side, pedes-
trians had to fly to the doorways and cross streets for their lives. This
did not disturb the drivers, who were completely absorbed in their con-
tests, and filled the air with loud shouts of encouragement to their
struggling beasts. Tradition says that the French Canadian ponies
had their origin from the war steed of General Braddock, a beautiful,
thoroughbred, snow white mare, which was brought to Detroit after
her owner had been killed in 1755 in his unsuccessful attempt against
the French in western Pennsylvania. The male progenitor of this
hardy equine race is said to have been an Indian pony, which descended
from the horses brought into Mexico by Cortez. Wells were few and
far between and the water was not as good as that of the river, so most,
of the people carried their water from the river, two buckets at a time,
suspended from a yoke across the shoulders. The river and lake front
was occupied by French farm houses for a distance of nearly twenty
miles in each direction. These houses stood a little back from the
river road, and were surrounded by pickets and shaded by large pear
trees. In front of each a tiny wharf projected into the river from which
they dipped their water, and moored to the wharf was the canoe be-
longing to the house. A majority of the French residents sympathized
with the American cause, but some leading men adhered to the British.
The latter were mostly engaged in the fur trade and general business,
which they continued after the evacuation. They were generally men
of standing and influence, and took a more r less active part in the
affairs of the town where thei ■ interests were located. During the
four years that elapsed before 1800, there grew up a feeling of political
aversion against this element, and this finally culminated n a popular
demand that they should take the oath of allegiance to the United States
or leave the country. A number of them did take the oath, but others did
261
not. Some thirty French residents signed a paper declaring themselves
as British subjects and stating that they intended to leave the country.
In January, 1802, on petition of the inhabitants of Detroit, Solo
mon Sibley introduced a bill for the incorporation of the town of
Detroit at the session of the Assembly of the Northwest Territory
held at Chillicothe in that month. The bill was passed on Jan-
uary 18, and this, the first charter of Detroit, was signed by Ed
ward Tiffin, speaker of the House of Representatives of the ter-
ritory, and Robert Oliver, president of the territorial court, and
approved by Governor St. Clair February 18, 1802. In this act the
following five trustees were appointed: John Askin, John Dode-
mead, James Henry, Charles Francis Girardin and Joseph Cam-
pau, who were to hold office until their successors were chosen at
elections to be held on the first Monday of May following. The act
defined the boundaries of the town as follows: The river front on the
south; the east line was the line between the property of John Askin
(the Brush farm) and the farm of Antoine Beaubien; the west line was
the line between the William Macomb (Cass) farm and that of Pierre
Chesne (the Jones). This rectangle extended back from the river a
distance of two miles. Freeholders and householders paying $40 a
year rent, and others having the freedom of the town, were entitled to
yote at the annual election or town meeting to be held on the first
Monday in May. The trustees were authorized to formulate such or-
dinances as seemed advisable, but an ordinance could be repealed by a
majority of the voters. John Askin and the other trustees, except Gir-
ardin, took the oath of office and were seated on February 9, 1802,
thus anticipating the governor's signature of the act by nine days.
They appointed the following officers: Secretary, Peter Audrain;
assessor, Robert Abbott; collector, Jacob Clemens; marshal, Elias
Wallen ; messenger, Louis Pelletier. Girardin qualified as trustee at the
next meeting. The first official session was held at the house of Trus-
tee James Henry, where an ordinance for better fire protection was
passed. By its terms all defective chimneys were ordered repaired at
once, and were required to be swept once in two weeks, between the
months of October and May, and once a month during the summer sea-
son. Each householder was obliged to keep a barrel filled with water
in some convenient place about his premises ; the barrel was to be pro-
vided with ears or hooks so that two men would be able to carry it sus-
pended on poles. Each householder was compelled to have a short
262
ladder to reach the roof, and another for reaching the top of the chim-
ney. Shopkeepers were compelled to keep in readiness a large bag
holding at least three bushels, and every person was to keep at least
two buckets each of three gallons capacity, in readiness. At the first
signal of fire every able bodied man was under obligation to turn out
with buckets, and the shopkeepers to bring both their buckets for
water and their bags, to be used for wetting and covering the roofs of
buildings which were in danger of ignition. Neglect of any of these
duties subjected the delinquent to a fine of five dollars, and when a citi-
zen's chimney burned out he was assessed ten dollars for endangering
the property of his neighbors. Detroit's first fire department was in-
stituted February 23, 1802. Jacques Girardin and Augustin La Foy
were the chiefs in command of the engine, an old fashioned brake
pump purchased by the British several years before the surrender, and
they were associated with twelve soldiers who were appointed by Col.
J. F. Hamtramck as a fire brigade. In addition to these a corps of
axemen was appointed, consisting of Francois Frero, Presque Cote,
Sieur Theophile Mette, Baptiste Pelletier, Charles Poupard dit la Fleur
and Presque Cote, jr. Householders were limited to the amount of gun-
powder they might keep on their premises, but the allowance was most
liberal, the legal quantity being one keg or half a barrel, sufficient to
scatter any house all over the corporation. In the earliest times fires
were extinguished by the bucket brigade, who passed water, hand to
hand, from the river to the fire, and the water was dashed against the
burning buildings. When the roofs caught fire they were extinguished
by means of swabs or bundles of rags secured to the end of long
poles. These were dipped into buckets of water and applied to the
burning patches in the roofs with good effect. When the fire became
serious, additional protection was secured by covering the roofs with
the skins of fur bearing animals. At the beginning of the nineteenth
century furs had become too valuable to be thus exposed to damage,
so the large bags were provided, and the bagmen spread them where
the danger was most imminent, and kept them saturated with water.
When the building became a mass of roaring flames in spite of the
efforts of the engine men and the bucket passers, the battering squad
took a hand at the fire. Taking up a green log as heavy as they could
carry, they charged at the burning building at a brisk trot and dashing
it against the wall with all their might sent the burning timbers down
into the interior. Following along each wall and repeating the heavy
263
blows, they could soon reduce an ordinary building to the height of a
bonfire, although their work would send the sparks in a shower which
made the bagmen hustle on the adjoining roofs.
The fire department grew with the town, and the citizens were allot-
ted to various duties according to their talents. There was a crew of
axe and ladder men, twelve in number, and Benjamin Woodworth was
their captain. Fourteen men of long limbs and broad backs manned
the hand fire engine under the direction of David C. McKinstry. The
bagmen were selected from the professional class, because their mus-
cles were not trained to heavy work. Among the fourteen men of this
department were Henry J. Hunt, captain; Conrad Ten Eyck, Solomon
Sibley, James Abbott, Abraham Wendell, Peter J. Desnoyers, Philip
L'Ecuyer, Antoine Dequindre; each of these men left his mark upon
the community. A hook and ladder and battering ram company of
twenty-one men, under management of Robert Irwin, completed the
roster of the Detroit Fire Company in 1815.
Robert Gouise and Charles Curry were appointed house-to house in-
spectors in 1802 to enforce the fire ordinance, and their first report of
delinquents contained the name of nearly every village official. At
every council meeting during several succeeding years there were more
or less complaints, and the town officials were as often subject to fines
as the other citizens. Those who were able paid the full amount and
those who were poor paid commutation fines, according to their means.
On March 20, 1802, the trustees provided for the establishment of a
public market. The site was " on the river front between the old bake
house and the east line of pickets. " Tuesdays and Fridays were set
apart as market days, and the hours were from daylight until noon.
Fines were imposed for offering meats or produce for sale at any other
place about the town, and also for offering unwholesome meats. James
May, a very prominent citizen, was found guilty of offering diseased
beef for sale, and after five witnesses had testified against him he was
fined $15. On the same day his colored boy was caught throwing rub-
bish on the public common, contrary to the ordinance, and the master
had to pay an additional fine of twenty-five cents.
On March 24, 1802, seventeen delinquents were fined for violations
of the fire ordinance. Among them were four trustees, John Askin,
James Henry, Robert Abbott and John Dodemead; Wayne county was
also fined, the law having been violated at the jail. Dr. Herman
Eberts, who was high sheriff of Wayne county under American rule,
2G4
AARON A. PARKER.
and had been since 1706, was another of the delinquents. He wa^ an
Austrian count and a surgeon by profession and came to America dur-
ing the Revolution with a Hessian regiment. He resigned shortly after
arriving and settled in Quebec, but afterward came to Detroit, where
he engaged in mercantile business and also practiced his profession.
At the first election on May 3, 1802, John Askin was dropped, and
George Meldrum was elected in his place on the board of trustees.
The ofificers elected were Charles F. Girardin, James Henry, John
Dodemead, George Meldrum and Joseph Campau. Peter Audrain con-
tinued as secretary, Robert Abbott as assessor, William Smith was
madecoUector and Elias Wallen, marshal. Smith soon resigned and
Conrad Seek was appointed collector in his place. At this meeting the
polls were open from 11: 30 to 1 : 30, and after canvassing the vote the
retiring board voted the freedom of the town to Solomon Sibley, who
came to Detroit in 1797, in acknowledgment of his services in framing
the act of incorporation and other services at the Legislature of ChilH-
cothe in the interest of Detroit.
An ordinance to prevent racing and fast driving on the streets was
passed April 1, 1802. The treasurer of the town had for his compensa-
tion three percent, of the moneys turned over to him, and the collector
had the same proportion of his collections. The secretary was allowed
one dollar per meeting, and one cent for each dozen words of translation
when he had to prepare public notices in both French and English.
These notices were posted in a public place in the daytime and taken
'n at night. The marshal and the official messenger were allowed one
dollar per day during the time they were engaged. On April 17 a tax
levy of 1^150 was assessed upon the town for public improvements. A
poll tax of twenty-five cents was assessed against every male twenty-
one years of age or over, and the balance was assessed against the
owners of property.
The price of bread and the size of loaves were also regulated by the
trustees. Loaves were first established at three pounds weight and at
sixpence a loaf, but changes in the price of flour caused the scale to be
raised to eight cents in July. Bread had to be baked in large ovens,
so that no baking was done by the ordinary householders and the pub-
lic bake houses were much patronized. Later the price rose until a
loaf of bread cost twelve and a half cents, and when this became too
close a margin for the baker the weight of the loaves was reduced.
At the election of May, 1803, James May became chairman of the
265
34
town board of trustees. His associates were Robert Abbott, Charles
Curry, Dr. William Scott and Elijah Brush. The freedom of the cor-
poration was extended to Jonathan Scheiffelin, a member of the Ter-
ritorial Legislature. Detroit was a turbulent town in those days.
Taverns were numerous and most of them were low groggeries.
Some licenses were revoked because the proprietors kept disorderly
houses, and an ordinance was passed forbidding the sale of strong
drink on the Sabbath, except to travelers; also forbidding the sale to
minors, servants, or to colored slaves, unless with the consent of par-
ents or masters. The records of the board are loaded with complaints
against persons for " riotous and disorderly conduct" while drunk, and
the culprits were of all colors and both sexes. Liquor cases and fire
ordinance violations were about the only misdemeanors mentioned.
Solomon Sibley was elected chairman of the board of trustees in
1804. His associates were James Abbott, Henry Berthelet, Joseph
Wilkinson and Frederick Bates. Peter Audrain was secretary, John
Watson assessor, Peter Desnoyers collector, and Thomas McCrae mes-
senger. McCrae was appointed the first member of the Detroit police
force and also clerk of the market. It was his duty to examine all
yards and alleys and public streets every two weeks and report their
condition. He was the first house-to-house sanitary inspector, health
officer and fire warden; and although his functions were important,
his pay was fixed at only seventy- five cents a day. The services he
then rendered now cost Detroit over $600,000 a year.
Solomon Sibley, who was an able attorney, was one of the first Ameri-
can settlers to arrive at Detroit for permanent residence. He was born
in New England and came west with a colony which settled at Mari-
etta, the first capital of the Ohio territory. Impressed with the im-
portance of Detroit's geographical location, he came to Detroit and
settled there early in 1797. He soon became prominent in the affairs
of the town and each year saw a wider recognition of his ability, hon-
esty and his sagacity in public affairs, as before mentioned. He be-
came a trustee of Detroit and was chosen chairman of the board, and
was a representative at the Territorial Council and at the General
Assembly at Chillicothe. In 1802 he went to Marietta, where he mar-
ried the daughter of Col. Ebenezer Sproat. The happy pair in return-
ing stopped at the house of Major Jonathan Cass, at Zanesville.
When their horses had been sent to shelter for the night, Mr. Sibley
noticed a square built young man of twenty years of age, of grave
266
countenance and dignified manners, engaged in pounding Indian corn
into "samp," as the coarsely broken grain was called by the Indians.
A large oak stump which stood beside the house had been hollowed
out by the woodman's axe and a small fire of charcoal, until it would
hold perhaps half a bushel of corn. Over the stump projected the
limb of another tree to which a heavy wooden pestle, perhaps six feet
long, had been secured by a strong withe. The young man, with the
assistance of the limb of the tree, was swinging the heavy pestle
rapidly up and down, and at every descent the corn was shattered, the
coarser and heavier portions seeking the bottom of the hollow, while
the light hulls gathered at the top to be blown away by the industrious
workman. This young man, who certainly " knew enough to pound
samp," was Lewis Cass, who had just returned home from his law
studies at Marietta. The future governor of Michigan, secretary of
war and minister to France, stood face to face with the future repre-
sentative and future judge of the Supreme Court.
In July, 1804, the first dock ordinance was prepared by Solomon
Sibley and Frederick Bates. The merchants' wharf was falling into
ruin, and in order to provide for its future maintenance a fee of $1.50
was charged every vessel of ten tons or more mooring to it. Bateaux
were charged twenty-five cents, and pirogues and canoes twelve and a
half cents. The wharf was free on market days to those who brought
produce to the town. Many of the citizens dipped their water used for
domestic purposes from this wharf, and a charge of one dollar a year
was assessed for this privilege, but there was an outcry against it and
that portion of the ordinance was repealed.
By August 3, 1804, the Indians had become so hostile under British
influence at Maiden, that a night patrol was established in Detroit. It
was maintained by voluntary service for the protection of the town
against fire and massacre. Curfew regulations were established, and
persons who were found abroad after eleven o'clock had to give a
good account of themselves or go to the watch house. Lights were
ordered out at eleven o'clock, unless sickness compelled them to be
kept burning. On Monday, October 1, the first memorial to Congress
was prepared asking for better military protection. An ordinance pro-
hibiting bowling with cannon balls in the streets was passed March 15,
1805.
Col. John Francis Hamtramck became commandant of Detroit for
the second time in 1802, succeeding Col. Thomas Hunt. His first
267
service was the temporary command from the time of the British'sur-
render, July 11, 1796, until the arrival of General Wayne, commander-
in-chief, two months later. When he came to the command the second
time his busy life was drawing to its close, although he was still a com-
paratively young man, and he died within a year. Colonel Ham-
tramck was a Revolutionary soldier of fame, the first American com-
mandant of Detroit and its dependencies, and a volunteer alien
defender of our liberty and independence, who is entitled to rank
with Kosciusko, La Fayette, Pulaski, De Kalb and Steuben, for
Hamtramck was one of the Canadian refugees who espoused the cause
of the feeble colonists in 1776 He was born in Quebec on August 16,
1756, and his father was Charles David Hamtramck dit L'Allemand, a
barber, and a son of David Hamtramck and Adele Garnik of Luxem-
bourg, diocese of Treves, Germany. Charles David Hamtramck mar
ried Mane Ann Bertin at Quebec in November, 1753, and three years
afterward their illustrious son was born. John Francis Hamtramck
was in New York when he joined the army, a boy of less than twenty
years. He fought gallantly until the close of the Revolution and was
afterward under St. Clair and Wayne in the Indian wars. He was
made major in 1789; lieutenant-colonel in 1793; commanded the left
wing of "Mad" Anthony's army at the battle of Maumee in 1794;
subsequently promoted colonel of the First Regiment of the United
States Infantry; and entered Detroit the next day after the British
evacuation on July 11, 1796. He purchased a farm from Jacques
Campau, fronting on the river, and next east of the Cook farm, and in
1802 built a hewn log house, which is still standing, but in a ruinous
condition. It is on the river bank in rear of the Hagar brothers' resi-
dence on Jefferson avenue. But the hardships of war had undermined
his constitution and he died on April 11, 1803, aged forty-five years
seven months and twenty-eight days. His estate, which went to his
widow, Rebecca Hamtramck, footed up only $2,138.47. The house-
hold effects were stored in the citadel and were consumed in the great
fire of 1805. His two daughters subsequently inherited and sold the
farm. His remains, which were first interred in the burial ground of
St. Anne's church on Larned street, were subsequently removed to
Mt. Elliott cemetery and reinterred in the Elliott lot, where they now
rest under the massive stone erected by his fellow officers at the time
of his death.
268
CHAPTER XXXVII.
Rule of the Governor and Judges— Schemes of the Rapacious Land-Grabbers —
John Askin and Others Attempt to Get Possession of 20,000,000 Acres by Bribing
Congressmen — Their Schemes Exposed — Governor Hull and Judge Woodward.
A local assembly was called in Detroit in December, 1804, at which
James May and Robert Abbott prepared two petitions to Congress, ask-
ing that the territory lying north of an east and west line, running east
from the head of Lake Michigan, which had been designated as Wayne
county since 1796, be organized into a separate territory to be known as
Michigan. The vast territory obtained under the Louisiana purchase
was placed under the jurisdiction of the Indiana territory in 1804.
When Congress convened in 1805 the prayer of the Detroit and Wayne
county residents was heard, and an act was passed granting their re-
quest.
Amid all this juggling of boundaries and other changes the land-
grabbers were not id-le. Previous to 1796, while territories, states and
nations were laying claim to territory in the West, private individuals
undertook to advance their fortunes by various land-grabbing schemes.
When it became evident that the United States would ultimately win
the cause for which they were struggling, several British subjects under-
took to get hold of vast areas by securing private grants from the
Indians. The most notable attempt of this kind was in 1795, when
John Askin enlisted his friends and relatives in a scheme which was to
give them a principality of 20,000,000 acres, lying between Lakes Erie
and Michigan in the richest section of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.
Askin was associated with John Askin, jr., his son; Richard Pattinson,
his son-in-law; Robert Innes, William Robertson and Jonathan Scheif-
felin. Their scheme consisted in forming a stock company and issuing
forty-one equal and undivided shares of stock. Five of these shares
were to be bestowed upon certain Detroiters who were in terms of in-
timacy with the Indians, for which they were to use their influence in
inducing the Indians to sign the deed. Other attempts of private in-
dividuals to secure private grants from the Indians had failed, because
Congress had refused to recognize or confirm such grants. To sur-
269
mount this obstacle, twenty-four shares of the stock were set aside to
be used in purchasing the votes of enough members of Congress in
order to insure a confirmation of the Indian deed. It was expected
that many votes would be secured upon the mere representation that
the company intended to develop the resources of the acquired terri-
tory, and make it a public as well as a private benefit. The promoters
were to be satisfied with twelve shares, each share representing about
50,000 acres of land. Their scheme made a promising beginning, as
the Indians were cajoled into signing their totems to the grant asked
for, and it remained for the promoters to secure a confirmation of the
deed. Two of the ablest lobbyists in the country were employed to
work the scheme through Congress, and they were prepared to bribe
the members who could not be won by persuasion. The lobbyists.
Dr. Robert Randall of Philadelphia, and Charles Whitney of Vermont,
began their labors in the legislative hall at Philadelphia on December
16, 1795. Lobbying had not yet arisen to its present standard among
the fine arts, or the congressmen of that session were more honest than
those of the Credit-Mobilier days, for on December 28, 1795, Congress-
man William Smith, of South Carolina, arose before the House and ex-
posed the whole scheme. Randall and Whitney were brought before
the bar of the House for examination. Dr. Randall was discharged
for lack of evidence, but his colleague, who had probably worked with
less finesse, was reprimanded by the speaker and was fined the amount
of the costs.
Askin's purpose was defeated, but he was not yet discouraged. Next
year he went to work to obtain an individual grant. Since it was evi-
dent that he could not get a deed of absolute title through Congress, he
tried his luck at obtaining a lease for 999 years. After visiting the
councils of twenty- nine chiefs who claimed titles on the lands south of
Lake Erie, he obtained a lease of a tract of land extending from the
mouth of the Cuyahoga River westward as far as Sandusky Bay, a dis-
tance of fifty-nine miles, extending southward an equal distance, mak-
ing a total of 2,227,840 acres. The deed or lease was executed by the
Indians on January 18, 1796, and the consideration named was a gra-
tuity of five shillings a year to each of the grantors and other considera-
tions, probably the furnishing of arms, blankets, ammunition, scalping
knives, etc. To strengthen his claim the younger Askin moved to the
mouth of the Cuyahoga River in 1797, expecting to secure the rights
of a squatter in addition to the lease, but Congress refused to confirm it.
270
In commenting- on the first described "frustrated land-grab," Judge
Campbell, in his "Political History of Michigan," says: "Was this
really an attempt of the British government to retain ownership of
Michigan lands, knowing that it could not retain sovereignty?"
The Territory of Michigan, which was carved out of Indiana Terri-
tory, came into being by act of Congress on June 30, 1805, and five
officers were commissioned to rule it, as follows: Governor, William
Hull; secretary, Stanley Griswold; treasurer, Frederick Bates ; justices
of Supreme Court, A. B Woodward, Frederick Bates and John Griffin.
Detroit was made the seat of government, and the ordinances of 1787
and 1789 were made the fundamental law of the new Territory. Michi-
gan Territory in 1805 comprised the territory represented by the pres-
ent low^er peninsula, a narrow strip across Indiana and Ohio which lay
north of the line drawn due east from the southern extremity of Lake
Michigan, and the eastern half of the upper peninsula. The western
border was on a line drawn through the center of Lake Michigan, and
the east line, according to the Jay treaty, was in the center of the main
channel of navigation in the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers and Lake St.
St. Clair, and through the center of Lake Huron to Sault Ste. Marie.
The three judges necessarily formed the highest judiciary, but they
had other important powers. With the governor they formed the legis-
lature, so that the judicial, legislative and executive powers in the new
Territory were all centered in four persons. In this first step of Michi-
gan toward distinct political entity the personality and character of her
first rulers will be found of interest.
William Hull was a native of Derby, Conn., and was born on June
24, 1753, of English ancestry. His father was a member of the Con-
necticut Legislature for many years. Young Hull worked on a farm
and attended school, entered Yale College and graduated after a four
years' course, when he was nineteen. He taught school and afterward
studied law at Litchfield, and was admitted to the bar in 1775. Re-
turning home amid the excitement of the war then declared against
Great Britain, he was elected captain of a Derby company, and while
making preparations to go to the front his father died. He delayed
not, however, but marched with his company and joined a regiment
which proceeded to Cambridge, then Washington's headquarters. Here
an incident occurred which showed his predilection for etiquette and
display, which was more fully developed at Detroit in his efforts to
force expensive uniforms on the poverty-stricken militia of the Territory.
271
There was little regard for military style in the camp, and when his
regiment turned out to meet an expected attack, he was the only officer
in uniform. The other officers said he was making himself too conspic-
uous; that he would draw the enemy's fire. So he went to his tent,
took off the uniform and donned a dress like the other officers — a frock
coat and handkerchief tied around his head. He was placed in charge
of a redoubt, and when Washington was inspecting the regiment he
asked the name of the officer commanding the company. " With feel-
ings of inexpressible mortification," says Hull, " I came forward in my
savage costume and reported that Captain Hull had the honor of com-
manding the redoubt." Washington passed on and the mortified young
officer forthwith sent for his uniform and donned it once more. In
1777 he was made major of the Eighth Massachusetts Regiment, and
in 1779 he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel. It is said that he was
a brave soldier, but the only separate command with which he was in-
trusted was a force of 400 men in an expedition against Mdrrisania, on
the East River, near Hell Gate, New York, But in this affair he did
not distinguish himself. In 1784 he was sent by the government to
Quebec in order to ascertain from Governor Haldimand why Detroiljf
Niagara and Mackinac had not been surrendered by the British, in ac-
cordance with the treaty of Ghent of the previous year. He obtained
no satisfaction, as Great Britain was not yet willing to release her hold
on this region of the Northwest. At the conclusion of the war of the
Revolution he settled at Newton, Mass., and practiced law. In 1786
occurred the so-called Shay's rebellion. The treaty with Great Britain
had guarantied that citizens of the United States who were indebted to
British merchants before the war, should pay their just debts. This
made great trouble, as the country was almost bankrupt and everybody
was poor. The courts were about to issue attachments and executions,
and the rebellion consisted in bodies of citizens forcibly preventing the
judges from holding court. Hull aided in the suppressing of this in-
surrection, in which several persons were killed and wounded and over
a hundred taken prisoners. In 1793 he was appointed a commissioner
to make arrangements with the British government for a treaty with
the western Indians, then at war with the United States, but nothing
came of it. In the same year he was appointed judge of the Court of
Common Pleas, and was also elected senator in the Massachusetts Leg-
islature. He was a popular man and was re-elected senator every year
until he was appointed governor of Michigan Territory by President
272
CHARLES BUNCHER.
Jefferson on March 22, 1805. In the latter position he was appointed
for three years and was reappointed for two successive terms. When he
arrived in Detroit on July 1, 1805, he was a little over fifty two years
of age.
Augustus B. Woodward, the chief justice or presiding judge, by vir-
tue of his commission being the earliest, was a native of Alexandria,
Va. He held the position from 1805, when the Territory was created,
until 1823, when he was virtually legislated out of office, a period of
eighteen years. He came of an old Virginia family whose holdings
were near Alexandria, and he was doubtless educated in Virginia or
Maryland. Little of his early life or family is known. He commenced
to practice law in Washington about 1795, after he had attained legal
manhood. The capital was then a mere expanse of forest and swamp,
with a scattered group of houses and a small population, and its site
and its isolation from the busy cities of commerce gave rise to much
ridicule on both sides of the Atlantic. He was present, in 1792, at the
ceremony of laying the corner stone of the District of Columbia at
Jones Point, near Alexandria, and his card as an attorney at law ap-
peared in the National Intelligencer of Washington in 1803. At that
time one wing of the present Capitol had been built and this, with the
White House, were then the only large buildings in that city. Wash-
ington was laid out by a French engineer named L'Enfant, who fol
lowed the plan of Versailles, which was that of the spider web, with
its diagonal main avenues and concentric streets converging at the pal-
ace of Louis XIV. Woodward was an intimate friend of the French
engineer, who, like himself, was educated and eccentric, and he took
great interest in the plans of the future great capital. He was also a
friend of his fellow Virginian, President Thomas Jefferson, who ad-
mired his literary and legal ability, and the latter commissioned him as
presiding judge of the Territory of Michigan early in 1805. When he
came here shortly after the great fire on July 11, 1805, he saw the pos-
sibilities of improvement, and when he returned to Washington in
August, procured a copy of the plans of that city from L'Enfant. He
either assumed or was given the principal direction of the plans for
laying out the new town, and the result is the present plan of Detroit
which is named the Governor and Judges' plan. His plan was partly
superseded by the plan of Abijah Hull, a surveyor and relative of the
governor, but the distinctive spider web idea was retained and carried
into effect. Personally and judicially the judge was a unique and in-
273
teresting character, and his name and fame are indissolubl)'^ connected
with the history of the city. In Farmer's History of Detroit his per-
sonal appearance is described as follows: " The judge was very tall,
with a sallow complexion, and usually appeared in court with a long,
loose overcoat, or a swallow-tailed coat with brass buttons, a red
cravat, and a buff vest, which was always open and from which pro-
truded an immense mass of ruffles. These last, together with, the
broad ruffles at his wrists, were invariably soiled. His pantaloons hung
in folds to his feet, meeting a pair of boots which were always well
greased. His hair received his special attention and on court days
gave evidence of the best efforts of the one tonsorial artist of the town.
He was never known to be fully under the influence of liquor, but
always kept a glass of brandy on the bench before him. In the even-
ing he would go to Mack & Conant's store (which was on the north
side of Jefferson avenue, between Woodward avenue and Griswold
street) and sit and talk and smoke his pipe and sip half a pint of
whisky until it was all gone."
Mack & Conant's partnership extended from 1817 to 18"-^0 and during
this time their clerk and bookkeeper was the late David Cooper, father
of Rev. David M. Cooper. David was a careful and conscientious clerk
and kept note of everything affecting his employers' interest. In due
time he submitted a bill for the liquor. The judge protested, saying
that it was ridiculous to charge for a little whisky. " But it is not a
little," said Cooper, "it is a good deal; I kept count and I find you
have drank three gallons and a half." Woodward paid the bill, but
with a bad grace. Perhaps the best thing that Woodward did for De-
troit was his work in having the city laid out with broad avenues, on
the plan above described. The angles caused by this plan entailed
small triangular parks at the intersections and these he suggested
should be planted with trees. There is no doubt that his influence and
work in this respect has made modern Detroit one of the most beauti-
ful cities in the world. Woodward had a legal mind of no common
order, great literary ability and fine executive and administrative pow-
ers, but his merits as a jurist and legislator were obscured by his colossal
vanity. He was an able and learned man, but was afflicted with a
pedantry which was often absurd and ridiculous ; and his arrogance,
which was ever usurping the rights or privileges of the people. No
ruler of Detroit was ever so detested by the more intelligent citizens,
but he nevertheless had many friends. He was brainy and masterful
274
and bristled with ideas on every subject, and his initiative in law, poli-
tics and municipal affairs was generally adopted. Complaint after
complaint with reference to his official conduct went to Congress,
signed by the most influential citizens, but his influence in Washington
was strong enough to enable him to maintain his position until 1823,
when an act was passed in Congress providing that the people of the
Territory should elect their own legislature in 1824 and thereafter. His
experience in trying to be elected delegate to Congress, in which he
was defeated twice, showed him that his career in Michigan was over.
He resigned shortly after the act was passed, went to Washington,
where he was appointed judge of the Territory of Florida, and died at
Tallahassee on July 12, 1827. He was never married. Woodward
owned, laid out and named Ypsilanti.
Frederick Bates was born at Belmont, Goochland county, Ohio, on
June 23, 1777, of Quaker parents. He received a good education but
did not attend a college, and in early life was employed in the office of
the clerk of a Circuit Court in his native State. In 1797 he came to De-
troit when he was twenty years of age and engaged in mercantile busi-
ness, improving his mind during leisure hours by studying law and
history. He was postmaster of Detroit from 1803 to 1806. Official
honors then came thick upon him. In 1804 he was appointed receiver
of the Detroit land office; trustee in 1804-05; United States territorial
judge in 1805-06 ; and territorial treasurer during the same year. In
1806 he removed to the Territory of Missouri, where he held several
exalted offices and in 1821 was elected governor of that State. He died
on August 4, 1825, on his farm at Bonhomme, Mo , on the bank of the
Missouri River.
John Griffin, who was territorial judge from 1805 to 1823, was ex-
actly cotemporarary with Woodward in that office and resigned at the
same time. He was a native of Virginia, born about 1799, and proba-
bly studied law in that State. He made the great tour in Europe and
when he returned landed at Philadelphia, and was appointed by Jeffer-
son as above. Judge B. F. Witherell alludes to Griffin as a man who
"was constitutionally inert, wanted firmness and decision of character,
and disliked responsibility, but was considered an upright judge and
honest man." It was probably Judge Witherell's kindly disposition
that dictated the last paragraph, as it is difficult to understand honesty
and uprightness when coupled with the other characteristics. He was
subservient to Woodward and invariably voted with him on the bench.
275
Every week after the Gazette was started, in 1817, it contained one or
mo e squibs and editorials directed against Woodward and Griffin,
many of them written nearly as well as the Junius letters. One of
these articles was as follows: " A singular question has arisen under
the law of this Territory exempting property taken on execution.
This law exempts the tools necessary for the trade or profession of the
party. Suppose now an execution was issued against the goods and
chattels of his honor, Judge Woodward, would or would not, his other
honor, Judge Griffin, be exempt from execution ? " The Gazette added
that a "learned counselor had given it as his professional opinion that
Judge Griffin must be taken, because the law will not exempt tools
used for the purpose of fraud." In 1823, when Judge Woodward re-
signed. Griffin followed his example and it is said went to Philadelphia
and died there between 1842 and 1845. Judge Witherell said that
when he died he was the next in descent to a Scottish peerage.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
Great Fire of 1805— The Entire Town Destroyed on June 11— Three Hundred
Families Left Homeless — Relief Measures and Grant of the 10,000 Acres— Judge
Woodward Lays out a New City on the Scale of Paris — The Territorial Militia.
A great disaster befell the city on Tune 11, 1805. Detroit was a
crowded collection of wooden buildings built in narrow streets. Many
of the buildings had thatched roofs, and the aged timbers in many of
them were as dry as tinder after the seasoning of more than a century.
The people had been fully alive to their danger from fire; had pur-
chased a hand fire engine during the last days of the British regime,
and had enacted stringent fire regulations, but the old town was
doomed. On the morning of June 11, John Harvey, a baker, was in
his barn hitching up a pony when he carelessly knocked out the ashes
from his pipe. The embers set some hay on fire, and before Harvey
could realize the situation the whole interior was in flames. He shouted
an alarm, and the whole population soon came scurrying to the scene,
attracted by the outcry and the rolling volumes of smoke. The old fire
engine was put in service, but it soon became disabled through failure
276
of the valves, and the people formed a line to the river and passed
buckets as of old. Owing to the close proximity of the building-s and
the narrow streets the fire could not be controlled. All the population
worked hard saving what they could of the household goods, and the
contents of the doomed houses were scattered along the river bank and
cast about in the adjoining common. All the others were mere heaps of
glowing embers and the stone chimneys stood above the ruins like
monuments to a lost civilization. In the back of an old account book
which belonged to George Meldrum, a trader who lived in Detroit at
the time of the fire, it is recorded that the fire began at 8:30 in the
morning and that it lasted about four hours. At 12: 30 all the build-
ings except one house had been completely consumed. The stockade
and houses had disappeared and were now blackened ruins, from which
came here and there slender columns of smoke. The narrow streets,
the old quaint houses of logs with their steep roofs which contained
the second story; the foot- wide timber walks; the rude furniture with
its wealth of home associations, had all perished in those few hours;
while on the river bank were tents and hastily erected shelters of bark
or poles in which the grief-stricken residents took refuge. Around
them were the scanty remnants of their household effects which had
been snatched from the flames. Suffering was everywhere. The farm
houses along the river were crowded with destitute people, to whom
the kindly hospitality of the French owners was a godsend. Those
who could not find shelter camped on the common under tents and ex-
temporized cabins. The more wealthy sufferers moved across the river
to Sandwich and Amherstberg, while some returned to the homes of
their ancestors in Lower Canada or to the English settlements in New
York. In the course of time contributions from outside came to the
suft'erers, mostly from Montreal and Mackinac, the total amount being
about $2,000. The loss exceeded $200,000.
Within the narrow limits of the stockade for 104 years people had
been born, had married and had died. Thousands had died untimely
deaths by war, murder or massacre; fortunes had been lost and won;
the lilies of France, the cross of St. George, and the stars and stripes
had waved over its fortresses; but now all was gone and " like the
baseless fabric of a vision, left not a wreck behind." It was a holocaust
of vanished memories. Detroit seemed an extinct city, which lived
only in the history of the past; never again to be the home of a busy
population or a mart of trade.
277
There was great distress in Detroit after the great fire and those who
could not get away endured considerable hardships; but the summer
weather greatly mitigated the trouble of the inhabitants. The money
received from Montreal, Mackinac and other places for the use of the
sufferers was not all spent for the purposes for which it was sent, and
there was great dissatisfaction. Twelve years afterward Solomon
Sibley turned over $625 of it to the university fund. The population,
which had been greatly reduced in 1796 by the exodus of several hun-
dred to Amherstburg and other places across the river, was not more
than 600 at the time of the fire. Perhaps one-third of these left the
city and sought shelter elsewhere. Some of those remaining started
to build new log houses, but they were restrained by Governor Hull
and the judges and other officers, who told them that a new plan of the
city would be prepared, in which the old lot lines, both inside and out-
side of the stockade, would not be regarded. These orders were obeyed
and there were no permanent houses built during the remainder of the
year. The lands which had been within the enclosure and also a con
siderable part of the common were surveyed and laid into city lots and
outlets. Every person who owned a lot before the fire was allowed to
have one free lot. An auction was held to ascertain values, and the
average price realized from the sale of fourteen lots was made a basis
in selling other lots. This was from $250 to $300, according to loca-
tion. The opportunity for a big land deal was extremely favorable at
this time and persons able to carry it out were not wanting. Late in
1805 Governor Hull and Judge Woodward went to Washington, and by
liberal expenditures for wine and other refreshments, carried through
a bill authorizing the rulers of the Territory to lay out in lots the new
town and 10,000 acres of land on the north. Also, to give a lot con-
taining not less than 5,000 square feet to every inhabitant over seven-
teen years of age. The land remaining was to be sold, and the money
used for building a court house and jail. This bill was passed on April
21, 1806. There was a good deal of red tape connected with the par-
celing out of the lots, and the delay caused great vexation. The in-
habitants who remained were actually obliged to live the whole of 1806
in bark shanties, tents, or other shelter, and next year there were only
nineteen deeds issued and less than half as many houses built.
In the fall of 1806 the land board, consisting of the governor and
judges, decided that three classes of persons were entitled to lots,
namely, those who lived in Detroit prior to the fire and who owned
278
neither houses or land; those who owned lots at the time; and those
who owned or occupied houses. If the new lots were larger than those
formerly owned the person was required to pay two or three cents per
square foot for the overplus. The question was raised as to whether
persons who had come to Detroit under American rule, and had not
taken the oath of allegiance, should receive lots. The governor and
judges sitting as a land board decided that such persons had no rights.
This class comprised a large majority of the inhabitants, and the decis-
ion raised popular excitement to white heat, but the board bent before
the storm and rescinded their decision. Finally everybody got a lot,
and then ensued a great deal of trading so that very few ever kept the
original parcel given them. In July, 1805, Governor Hull divided the
territory into districts and designated justices of the peace therefor as
follows: Mackinac — Samuel Abbott, David Duncan, Josiah Dunham,
Francois Le Baron, H. Erie, John Anderson, Francois Navarre, Isaac
Ruland, Francois Lasselle, Herbert La Croix and Jean Baptiste Beau-
grand. Detroit — Robert Abbott, James Abbott, James Henry, Elisha
Avery, James May, William McDowell Scott, Matthew Ernest, John
Dodemead, Stanley Griswold and Antoine Dequindre. Huron — Jean
Marie Beaubien, George Cotterell, Christian Clemens, Louis Campeau.
In September, 1805, Governor Hull, as commander-in chief, directed
that two regiments of infantry and a legionary corps be organized, the
latter body comprising all sums of the service, and appointed the
following officers: Aides de-camp — Francois Chabert de Joncaire,
George McDougall, Solomon Sibley. Quartermaster-genera] and colo-
nel— Matthew Ernest. Adjutant general and colonel — James May.
First Regiment — Colonel, Augustus B. Woodward; lieutenant-
colonel, Antoine Beaubien; major, Gabriel Godfroy; adjutant, Chris-
topher Tuttle; quartermaster, Charles Stewart; captains, Jacob Vis-
ger, David Duncan, George Cotterell, Louis Campeau, James Henry,
Louis St. Bernard, Joseph Cerre dit St. Jean, Joseph Campeau,
Jean Cisne; lieutenants, Samuel Abbott, John Meldrum, Whitmore
Knaggs, Jean Marie Beaubien, Christian Clemens, James Campeau,
Thomas Tremble, Francois Chovin, Joseph Wilkinson; ensigns, Allen
C. Wilmot, George Cotterell, jr., Jean Baptiste Cicott, James Con-
nor, John Dix, Francois Rivard, Francois Tremble, John Ruland,
John Burnett; chaplain. Rev. Gabriel Richard; surgeon, William Mc-
Croskey.
Second Regiment — Colonel, John Anderson; lieutenant colonel, Fran-
379
cois Navarre; major, Lewis Bond; adjutant, Giles Barnes; quarter-
master, Alex. Ewings; surgeon, Ethan Baldwin; surgeon's mate,
Bernard Parker; captains, Joseph Jobin, Jean Baptiste Beaugrand,
Francois Lasselle, Hubert La Croix, Jean Baptiste Jeraume, Joseph
Menard, William Griffith, Prosper Thebeau; lieutenants, Hyacinth La
Joy, Francois De Forgue, Jean Baptiste La Salle, Jacques Martin,
Jean Baptiste Couteur, Jacques W. Navarre, Thomas Knaggs, Andrew
Jourdon. Cornet of cavalry, Samuel Moore; ensigns, Joseph Cavalier,
James Knaggs, Alexis Loranger, Joseph Bourdeaux, Isidore Navarre,
Joseph Huntingdon, Dominique Drouillard.
Legionary Corps — Lieutenant-colonel, Elijah Brush; major, James
Abbott; adjutant, Abraham Fuller Hull; quartermaster, Charles Curry;
surgeon, John Brown, Captain of cavalry, James Lasalle; captain of
artillery, John Williams; captain of light infantry, George Hoffman;
captain of riflemen, William McDowell Scott; lieutenant of cavalry,
Richard Smythe; first lieutenant of artillery, James Dodemead; second
lieutenant of artillery, Henry J. Hunt; lieutenant of light infantry,
Benjamin Crittenden; lieutenant of riflemen, Barnabas Campeau; cor-
net of cavalry, Gabriel Godefroy or Godfroy, jr. ; ensign of light in-
fantry, George Meldrum; ensign of riflemen, Pierre Navarre.
Governor Hull prescribed most elaborate uniforms for his territorial
troops. According to his orders the privates were ordered to clothe
themselves in long coats of dark blue cloth, the skirts reaching to the
knee and they were to be ornamented with large white buttons.
Their pantaloons were to be of the same material for winter wear and
of white duck for summer. The vests were to be of white cloth all the
year. Half boots, or high gaiters were to be their foot gear, and
round black hats, ornamented with a black feather, tipped with red
were required for head covering. Officers of the First Regiment were
to wear similar clothing, to which w^as added a red cape for the coat,
silver straps and epaulettes to designate their rank, and a cocked hat
with a white plume. The coats were to be faced with buff. Artillery-
men were to have coats turned up with red and a red cord running
down the leg of their trousers, and red plumes. Riflemen were, to
have green uniforms with short coats, and the plumes on their hats
were to be green. Taken altogether the uniforms required were better
adapted for the clothing of a royal body guard than for the dressing of
a backwoods militia corps. They were entirely beyond the means of
the men who were ordered to purchase them. The order was issued in
280
ELLIOTT G. STEVENSON.
the fall of 1805, and the men were directed to appear on duty in full
uniform after June 1, 180G. There was method in the governor's mad-
ness.
Before issuing the order Governor Hull had taken the precaution to
stock his store with cassimeres, ducks, hats, plumes, silver braid, but-
tons and epaulettes, and his uniforms were planned so as to create a
sale for this stock and give him a big profit. The officers, puffed up
with personal vanity, and for the purpose of setting an example to their
men, procured their uniforms in spite of the hardship it imposed upon
them, but the privates rebelled and said they would not be forced into
patronage of the governor's store. They realized that they were but a
small body of country militia, and said that all this starch, lace and
buckram which the martinet of a governor sought to impose upon them
was ridiculous, considering their scanty means. When June 1 passed
and the privates still remained ununiformed, their colonels sought to
enforce the order by placing some of the leaders in the opposition un-
der arrest. The soldiers cheerfully submitted and the officers asked
their governor for advice. Governor Hull told them to be patient but
firm, and the men would comply in due time. Complaints were so
emphatic that the grand jury protested against the enforcement of the
order and the soldiers refused to appear for drill. A corporal's guard
had to be sent around to drag them to duty, and some of them were
punished with lashes. They had one strong sympathizer in Stanley
Griswold, secretary of the territory, and Governor Hull ordered his
arrest on the charge of counseling the militia to disobey. He was tried
before Justices James May, George McDougall and Richard Smythe.
The two former were both officers of the militia and they held Griswold
to his personal recognizance in the sum of $1,000, while Justice Smythe
dissented. The strained relations between governor and militia had
dragged along for two years, then Griswold's term expired April
1, 1808, and he left the town. Reuben Attwater, who had an extraor-
dinary respect for the governor, was appointed to succeed him. The
time was fast approaching when proficiency in arms would become of
more importance to the militia than their appearance on dress parade.
The Indians were menacing Detroit and all of the white settlements in
Michigan, and British outrages on land and sea were leading the Amer-
icans on to a declaration of war. In October, 1805, the militia of the
River Sinclair (St. Clair) were detached from the First Regiment and
formed a battalion of four companies. Captain George Cotterell was
281
made lieutenant-colonel and Captain Louis Campeau, major of this
battalion.
A humorous sketch of a drill of a company of Michigan militia, com-
posed of French habitans, appears in Mrs. Hamlin's "Legends of De-
troit." The commander, Captain Jean Cecire, who was very conceited
and pretentious, forms his company in line, orders his sergeant to call
the roll, with the following results:
Sergeant — "Attention, Companie Francais Canadians! Answer your
name when I call it, if you please. Tock, Tock, Livernois? " No ans-
wer: at last a voice says : "Not here, gone catch his lambreuer [fast
pacer] in the bush."
Captain — "Sergeant, put peen hole in dat man. Go 'head."
Sergeant — " Laurant Bondy?"
" Here, sah."
" Claude Campau?"
"Here, monsieur. "
"Antoine Salliotte?" Some one answers — "Little baby came last
night at his house; must stay at home."
Captain — " Sergeant, put one preek on dat man's name."
Sergeant — " L'Enfant Riopelle?"
" Here, sah."
Sergeant — " Piton Laforest?"
" Here, sah."
vSergeant — "Simon Meloche?"
"Not here, gone to spear muskrat for argent blanc [silver money]."
Captain — "Sergeant, take'your peen and scratch dat man."
After the roll was called and the absentees pricked, the captain pro-
ceeded to drill his company.
Captain — " March ee, mes camarades, deux par deux [two and two]
like oxen, and when you come to dat stump, stop. "
They all made for the place and got there in a heap, looking, with
their colored dresses, like a rainbow on a spree. Disgusted at their
awkwardness the captain gave them a few minutes' relaxation. Instead
of resting " au militaire," they rushed off, one to smoke his beloved
pipe, another to polish his carbine, whilst others amused themselves
sitting on the grass telling about the races. The captain called them
to try again. This time he said :
" Marchee as far as dat Soulier de boeuf [old shoe] in de road, den
turn! right, gauche, left about! Shoulder mus-keete! Avance done
back. D'"f^el feneesh ! "
282
Governor Hull and Judge Woodward did not scruple to usurp all the
powers of the people. They passed an act in 1806, which annulled the
act of 1802, incorporating Detroit under the law of the Northwest Ter-
ritory. They gave themselves the sole authority to lay out streets,
survey lots and to dispose of the town lands by sale. This made them
autocrats of the town, as well as legislature and supreme court of the
Territory. The people did not realize the full purport of the act of 1806
at first. Governor Hull appointed Solomon Sibley mayor of the town,
and Mr. Sibley called a mass meeting for the election of a first and
second council, each to consist of three members. At the mass meet-
ing the people elected Stanley Griswold, John Harvey, the baker who
had caused the fire of the previous year, and Peter Desnoyers, for the
first council or town senate; and Isaac Jones, John Gentle and James
Dodemead as the second council or co-ordinate body. The city gov-
ernment being entirely under the control of the governor and judges,
proved to be a mere farce, and Sibley resigned. Elijah Brush was
then appointed mayor, but he also resigned shortly afterward.
Judge Woodward began laying out the town according to his mag-
nificent ideas, as if another Paris was to spring up suddenly in the
wilderness of Michigan. Governor Hull built a pretentious brick res-
idence, fifty feet square, on what is now Jeflierson avenue, but it looked
down a narrow and rather unattractive street. Judge Woodward rem-
edied this effect by ordering the front of the lots vacated and the houses
moved back, to widen the street. One street he closed at one end,
and another street, upon which a number of houses faced, he cut up
into lots, leaving the unfortunate householder without a frontage on
any thoroughfare. Of course there was a big row over this class of
proceedings, but when the two councils convened and held a noisy in-
dignation meeting, they found that they were powerless! The law
framed by Woodv^^ard and Hull had been issued with authority, and it
gave the framers supreme power over the people of Detroit. If the
councils passed any kind of an ordinance it was subject to the approval
of the mayor, who was the appointee of the governor, and there was
no way of passing over his vote. The people were so disgusted with
this usurpation of their rights, and the knowledge that they were
powerless to remove the will of their rulers, that they refused to vote
for councilmen after the first election in 1806.
A great source of dissatisfaction was the taking of the commons from
the people. From Cadillac's time it had alwa5^s been used as public
283
property and a pasture ground. But the governor and judges saw that
in the plan for the new city the adjacent land was indispensable and
that the commons must come under the contemplated improvement.
The same indignation was exhibited against laying out the ten-thou-
sand acre tract on both sides of Woodward avenue, and also the park
lots on either side of that thoroughfare. A good deal of this opposition
was characterized by ignorance and prejudice, but in all matters of this
kind, whether right or wrong, the royal four turned a deaf ear to all
remonstrances and worked their own sweet will without regard to pop-
ular disfavor. The authority of the governor and judges, except during
the war of 1812, was absolute, and it was not until 1815 that a measure
of local government was adopted under the governorship of Lewis Cass.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
The Bank of Detroit — A Well-Planned Swindle which Gave the Promoters Riches
and the People of Michigan a Bad Reputation — A Large Amount of Worthless Bills
Circulated but Never Redeemed— Early Grand Juries— 1806-1808.
In 1806 much of the fur business transacted at Detroit was carried
on by Boston capitalists, and the scarcity of actual money and the en-
tire absence of banking facilities at the Detroit end of the business,
caused no end of inconvenience. In the spring of 1806 Russel Sturges,
a wealthy fur dealer, and several other Boston capitalists, sent a petition
to Governor Hull asking the governor and judges to charter a bank,
which the proponents promised the capitalize to the amount of $400,000.
Without waiting for a charter the banking firm sent on Parker and
Broadstreet, their agents, who prepared to erect a bank building.
They also elected officers before the authority was granted. The char-
ter was issued to the Bank of Detroit in September, 1808. Judge
Woodward was already president and William Flanagan, of Boston,
cashier. The bank building, which was erected that fall at the north-
west corner of Jefferson avenue and Randolph street, was a small
structure of one story, but was strong and massive. The charter lim-
ited the capital of the bank to $1,000,000 and its term was to be 101
years. This was most liberal, as the actual investment did not exceed
284
$20,000. Governor Hull was authorized to subscribe for the stock
without limitation, and took ten shares in the name of the Territory of
Michigan. This was probably for the purpose of impressing upon the
minds of the public that the institution had the backing of the Terri-
tory of Michigan. Shares were offered at $25 in the open subscrip-
tion, but when a sufficient quantity had been subscribed to please the
promoters, the balance of 10,000 shares were taken privately by the
Boston parties at $2 a share. Leaving Judge Woodward and Cashier
Flanagan in charge, the Boston representatives, Parker and Broad-
street, went east, carrying with them Detroit Bank bills to the amount
of $100,000 to $150,000. Congress disapproved of the act of the Mich-
igan governor and judges in granting this charter, and the bank was
compelled to discontinue business next year for lack of authority.
In reviewing the circumstances connected with the founding of this,
the first monetary institution of Detroit, it is impossible to resist the
conclusion that both President Woodward and Governor Hull were not
men of integrity. Both were active promoters of the fraudulent con-
cern. The latter confessed in an official letter to President Madison,
in 1807, that $80,000 to $100,000 of the bank's bills were sent to agents
at Boston. There they went into circulation, scattering all over New
England, but they were never redeemed at Detroit with the exception
of $500, which were redeemed under threat of publicity. Who re-
ceived the value of these bills? Hull and Woodward denied receiving
any part of the proceeds, but it is contrary to probability that they told
the truth. It is not at all likely that a private bank would go to the
expense and trouble of issuing $100,000 worth of paper currency, the
president and cashier affixing their signatures to every bill, for the pur-
pose of sending them for free distribution in a distant mart of trade.
When Woodward came to Detroit he was a poor man, and although he
maintained a bachelor's household and entertained a little, his small sal-
ary of $1,200 per annum would not account for his subsequent wealth.
He certainly acquired money while in Detroit and became a very ex-
tensive land owner. He was a rich man when he left the city, yet he
never engaged in trade nor in any visible business save the purchase
and sale of land, and his sales did not aggregate a tithe of his wealth.
If there was any money or property acquired in exchange for the bills
issued by the Bank of Detroit, which is the most probable conclusion.
Woodward and Hull must have received a large share of it. In 1825
Judge Woodward, after he had resigned his position as judge, or rather,
285
after he had been legislated out of office, and just before he left for
Washington to obtain a new appointment as federal judge in Florida,
offered all his property in Michigan Territory for sale. It consisted of
220 feet on Jefferson avenue, with a storehouse of sixteen rooms;
about 750 acres, comprising the site of Ypsilanti and its mill privilege ;
320 acres on Woodward avenue, about six miles north of Detroit, on
which he had projected a village to be called Woodwardville ; and
eighteen farms of fifty-three and a third acres each, adjacent to the
out lots of the city of Detroit; these are all now within the city limits.
For this property, divided and valued in detail, he set an aggregate price
of about $100,000. Of course they were purchased for a much smaller
sum, but the wonder arises how he could have paid the money for even
$25,000 worth of land.
The conduct of the governor and judges, both as jurists and legislators,
was so wanton in its disregard for justice, that the people were in a con-
tinual state of exasperation. In some cases the judges seemed inclined
to make a bid for popularity in their decisions, but occasionally over-
shot the mark and retraced their steps. One instance occurred in 1806,
when the court fined some of the officers of the garrison for surrender-
ing some deserters from Fort Maiden to British officers. It appeared
that British officers at Fort Maiden and the American officers at De-
troit, being on good terms, had agreed to surrender to each other any
deserter who might come in their lines. A British soldier deserted
from Fort Maiden and came to Detroit. Two British officers followed,
and at night with the aid of three American officers, arrested the de-
serter, but the populace learned of it and the deserter was set at liberty.
The three American officers were tried by the judges, found guilty and
fined, and also sentenced to imprisonment. This was punishment with
a vengeance, and the inhabitants .were shocked and indignant at the
severity of the sentences. But in a day or two, when the judges real-
ized the popular feeling, the fines were reduced to a few cents in each
case and the imprisonments canceled.
In 1800 a code of laws was prepared by the two judges. It was known
as the Woodward code, and subsequently proved to be a very faulty
compilation. The territory was divided into three districts, the Erie,
the Huron and the Mackinaw, and courts were provided for each, at
which one of the supreme justices was to sit. . The court had exclusive
jurisdiction in criminal cases and also in civil cases involving more than
$20. Minor cases were tried by justices of the peace. Records of the
286
old court proceedings show that they were often irregular and that the
laws were ludicrously crude. Although the inhabitants were dissatis-
fied with the rule of governor and judges, it is not probable that they
would have preferred the old way, by which the military commandant
was the sole arbiter of justice in the colony. Nevertheless they found
abundant cause for grumbling in the new order of things, and their
complaints were vented as effectively as possible by the action of grand
juries. The address of the grand jury to the judges in 1807 criticised
the manner in which the public moneys were expended and asked that
a list be made of citizens in all parts of the Territory who were eligible to
be drawn for jury duty.
James Witherell, who succeeded Frederick Bates, took his seat with
Governer Hull and his fellow judges, Woodward and Grifiin, on April
3, 1808. He was born in Mansfield, Mass., on June 16, 1759, was a
Revolutionary soldier at seventeen, and was present at the battles of
White Plains, Long Island, Stillwater, Bemis Heights, Monmouth and
at the surrender of Burgoyne. He was also with Washington at Valley
Forge, and saw the execution of Major Andre at Tappan. When the
war was over he went to Connecticut, where he studied medicine and
became a physician. In Rutland county he was elected chief justice
of the County Court and was congressman in 1807. While a member
of the House Jefferson appointed him to be one of the judges in Michi-
gan Territory. When he came to Detroit he was forty-nine years of
age and was about six feet in height, with a stalwart, upright frame,
blue eyes, brown hair, ruddy complexion, large nose and resolute
mouth. He was a public spirited citizen, an honest man and good
jurist, with a firm, decided mind. He was not a profound lawyer, but
he had clear common sense and an inflexible will. On the bench he
nearly always opposed Woodward in his vagaries and perversity of law
and justice. In the records of the Territorial Legislature and Land
Board from 1807 to 1815, in which latter year Cass became governor,
the vote was nearly always Witherell and Hull against Woodward and
Griffin. But Witherell was a stronger man than Hull, and it was gen-
erally his purposes, rather than those of the governor, which were the
rule of action. Upon the bench Witherell was in the minority, for
Woodward and Griffin always voted together, but his stern outspoken
protest: " I do not see the force of that decision; there appears to be
no sense in it," was frequently heard on the bench. When Hull sur-
rendered Detroit he broke his sword, and refused to surrender his corps,
287
and they went to their homes. He was sent with his son and son-in-
law to Kingston, Upper Canada, where they were paroled. He went
back to Vermont but returned when the British surrendered Detroit in
1813. Resuming the duties of his office, he served as judge until 1828,
when he resigned and was appointed secretary of the Territory, and
after acted as governor during Cass's frequent absences. He died at
his home on the site of the present Detroit opera house, on January
!), 1838, aged seventy-nine years. He was the maternal grandfather of
ex-Senator Thomas W. Palmer.
The United States grand jury presentment in 1809, of which George
Hoffman was foreman, was thoroughly characteristic of jurors' action
at that period. Hoffman was a prominent citizen; was first register
of the United States Land Office in 1804-05, and postmaster in 180G.
In this presentment Governor Hull was indicted for an alleged abuse of
executive clemency in the case of John Whipple. The latter was a
former captain in the United States army and was a friend of Hull,
who had appointed him Indian interpreter. Whipple had been inter-
ested in a case in the Supreme Court which was decided contrary to his
interests, and he took the first opportunity to charge Judge Woodward
with favoritism and denounced him to his face as a d — d rascal. Whipple
was arrested, and at first Woodward proposed to try him before himself
and the other supreme judges, but was persuaded to have two justices
of the peace, one of whom was Robert Abbott, to sit with him on the
case. Whipple was tried, convicted and fined ;|50 Governor Hull
promptly remitted the fine. The relations of the governor and Wood-
ward had been strained for some time, but this almost severed them in
a personal sense. Everybody, including the grand jurors, believed
that the fine was remitted by the governor for the purpose of spiting
the judge, and their indignation at the latter was expressed in the
presentment as follows:
" History, the record of facts, shows that under every form of gov-
ernment, man, when invested with authority, from the weakness and
imbecility of his nature, has a strong propensity to assume powers with
which he is not legally clothed. Fully persuaded of this truth from
reflection and observation, we, the grand jury for the body of the Terri-
tory of Michigan, after having heard witnesses and a free and dispas-
sionate discussion and consideration of their testimony, on our oath
present, that William Hull, governor of this territory, did on the 27th
day of February, 1809, illegally and without any color of authority,
288
GEORGE H. BARBOUR.
sign an instrument in writing as said governor of the Territory,
remitting the fine of $50 imposed on Whipple by the Supreme Court,
. . . and we the said grand jurors have a confident hope that the
Supreme Court will carry into effect their own judgment."
It was at this period, and probably the result of the quarrels between
the governor and the judges, that the first attempt was made to obtain
for Michigan the second form of government, wherein the legislative
department was severed from the judiciary and became elective.
In 1809 the first printing press was brought to the Territory, as will
be detailed hereafter, and almost the first use to which it was devoted
was printing the proceedings of the grand jury in their presentment of
Governor Hull in remitting Whipple's fine. This presentment is dated
September 26, 1809. A meeting of citizens was at once called to con-
sider the matter of a change in the form of government, and, after
forming themselves into a permanent organization, they appointed a
committee, consisting of Augustus B. Woodward, George Hoffman,
James Henry, Solomon Sibley and James May, to inquire into the dif-
ferent forms of territorial government of the United States, and then
adjourned till the 16tli of October to meet at the house of Richard
Smythe. At this adjourned meeting Augustus B. Woodward presided
and George Hoffman acted as secretary. The proceedings were printed
in French and English and posted up in conspicuous places in the vil-
lage, and copies were sent to the more prominent citizens in other
settlements of the Territory. The resolutions adopted took the follow-
ing form :
" That it is expedient to alter the present form of government of this Territory,
and to adopt a form of government by which two bodies, elected annually by the
people, should make the laws, instead of the executive and the three judicial magis-
trates, appointed by the general government, adoptittg them ; the first to consist of
five representatives, and the second of three councilors, the executive to have a
qualified veto, under such modifications as Congress in their wisdom may think
proper to provide.
" That the Congress of the United States be respectfully solicited to appropriate
the sum of six hundred dollars annually towards defraying the expenses of the ter-
ritorial legislature, constituted on the foregoing principles.
" That it is expedient that the people of this Territory should be represented in
the Congress of the United States by a delegate to be elected by the people."
These resolutions, which were submitted to Congress, anticipated by
some years the actual change of government that the citizens then de-
sired, for the first delegate was sent to Congress in 1819, and the first
elective legislative body was chosen in 1824.
289
The meetings that had been called, and the discussions that had at-
tended them, had partly persuaded the people that the laws which had
been adopted, conformable to the ordinance of 1787, were illegal and
not properly applicable to our Territory. It was partly for the purpose
of remedying this evil that the change in government was sought to be
obtained. Governor Hull was so greatly excited by the popular clamor
that, three days later (October 19, 1809), he issued a proclamation,
under the territorial seal, calling upon all good citizens to enforce the
laws as they found them, and advising them that Congress alone had
the power to declare them null and void.
Peter B. Porter presented the petition of the citizens in Congress on
the 21st day of February, 1810. More important matters occupied the
attention of Congress at this time, for it was then discussing the ques-
tions that resulted in the war of 1812, and in the excitement the Mich-
igan petition was lost sight of, and nothing further was done in the
direction of self-government for the Territory until long after the war
was closed.
The grand jurors of those days, like death, loved a shining mark,
and like the Irishman at Donnybrook fair, hit any head that showed
itself. After upholding the judiciary against the executive, the same
grand jury turned around and denounced the same man in their legis-
lative capacity. The legislature, namely, the governor and judges, had
passed an act laying out and opening a road from the foot of the rapids
of the Miami River to Detroit, and in the early part of 1809 had passed
an appropriation act which provided for the payment of James With-
erell, one of the judges, William McD. Scott and John Whipple, as
commissioners, for seventeen days' service at |4 per day. for exploring
and surveying the road. For this Judge Witherell was censured by the
jury " for conduct unbecoming the character of a faithful and impartial
judge, for introducing and voting in a legislative assembly for the
above appropriation, especially when he knew the expense was to be
defrayed by the proceeds of a lottery authorized by the terms of the
act."
The four rulers were again presented in 1810 for alleged illegal and
arbitrary actions, the foreman, George McDougall, voicing their senti-
ments in the following prelude: "It is peculiarly painful and unpleas-
ant to be under the necessity of presenting any of the members of the
local government, especially those who are placed in the highest seats
of justice." George McDougall was a lawyer, a bon vivant, and a very
290
irascible man. He was born in Detroit under British rule, and was the
son of Colonel George McDougall, who was the first owner of Belle
Isle. Young George was sheriff of the county in 1800, chief justice of
the Territorial District Court in 1807, and probate judge in 1809-18.
In the war of 1812 he was adjutant-general of the Territory, and was a
brave and active soldier. He became poor in old age, was a lighthouse
keeper at Fort Gratiot and died in St. Clair about 1840, in extreme
poverty. The proceedings of the grand jury of 1811 were the most
unique and interesting of any in the annals of that body. First came
the address of Judge Woodward, in which he made some general
observations on the important duties before them, and eulogized the
" sacred principles of liberty and the absolute sovereignty of law in the
preservation of order." His concluding remarks were as follows:
" Permit me, gentlemen, before closing my remarks, to be the medium
of acquainting you that the governor and judges of this Territory have
imanimously recommended to all public officers to be clothed in Amer-
ican manufactures when engaged in the exercise of their official func-
tions, after the 4th day of July, 1813. In obedience to, or rather in
anticipation of, their recommendation, I have the honor to appear now
before you clothed completely in the manufacture of our countr}^
trusting that even an humble example may not be without some weight
or utility. Perhaps among the many splendid plans which intelligent
and patriotic characters may have contemplated for the encouragement
of domestic manufacture, none may prove more efficacious than the
simple rule of every citizen in his own person, restricting his consump-
tion to them."
After alluding in a hopeful vein to the proposed system of canals
projected in New York, he closed by making the following prophecy,
already abundantly realized :
" The face of this fine region of our continent will soon be fairly ex-
panded by the rays of American enterprise, and the day is not distant
when we shall behold the energy of its operation. Perhaps our own
era may witness the extension of our settlements to the Pacific, and
the standard of our republic reflected from the shores of another ocean."
If Woodward supposed that he would gain ground with the jurors
by disquisitions on the encouragement of home industry, or by proph-
ecies of material progress, he was woefully mistaken. The present-
ment made a few days later was a scorcher, and showed that the jurors
were thoroughly independent men, and no respecters of persons. It
291
started off by denouncing the authorities, the governor and judges, for
their delay in building a jail, and called attention to the act of Con-
gress directing its erection and providing for its cost by the sale of ten
thousand acres of land. Another count was a virtual indictment of
Judge Woodward. It recited that he had refused to sit on the trial of
a person accused of the murder of an Indian, under the plea that he
was not possessed of a freehold estate of 500 acres, as required by the
territorial ordinance, and that he had previously sat on the trial of an
Indian for a similar offense. The jury characterized this inconsistent
action as "either an unwarrantable assumption of power, or an egre-
gious dereliction of duty." Another count hauled him over the coals
for having Whitmore Knaggs — scout, interpreter and spy, under Gen-
erals St. Clair and Wayne, and Indian interpreter imder Hull — arrest-
ed and brought before him on a charge of assault and battery on
himself, when there were two other judges of the Supreme Court who
might have been called to try the case ; also that he had called up the
case in court without giving notice to Knaggs, and adjudged that he
should give $1, 500 bonds to keep the peace. For these and other reasons
the jury conceived that the conduct of Judge Woodward was " unprec-
edented, unwarrantable, arbitrary and tyrannical, and tending to pros-
trate the sacred barriers which the wisdom of our laws have erected
against encroachment on the liberties of the citizen." Copies of the
presentment were ordered sent to Judge Woodward and the other
Supreme Court judges, the president of the United States, president of
the Senate and speaker of the House of Representatives.
Judge Woodward's reply to this attack was respectful and quite in-
genious. He commenced by stating that "the laws of a free country,
gentlemen, touch the motives of mankind with a gentle hand, and
cautious ought those to be to whom it is entrusted, that neither public
passions or private malignity interpose or influence." He admitted
that the statement of his action in the case of Whitmore Knaggs, an
appointee of the governor, was correct, and added with sarcasm, that
in a previous case, " where another of the particular friends of the
governor [meaning John Whipple] made an assault on one of the
judges [himself] for matters connected with his public functions, an
adjudication of the Supreme Court was rendered [he might have added
that the dictum of the court was negatived by the governor's action,
but every juror knew what he meant]." In that case the court enter-
tained a full conviction that it had the power, and that it was his duty
292
to himself to institute proceedings against the offender. A judge, he
argued, is a conservator of the public peace, and is always in the ex-
ecution of his office, and the law arms him with power for the pro-
tection of others and also himself. Even words of threatening and
abuse toward him in relation to his public duties are regarded in a
similar light. He contended that the subsequent proceedings were
public, but that the parties did not wish to be present, and it was not
deemed proper to coerce them. "An act of benevolence," he added,
" is not to be converted into an act of oppression."
The judge concluded by saying that he would transmit the present-
ment with other documents to the speaker of the House of Represent-
atives, " but it would not be considered respectful or proper to trouble
the other public functionaries with the subject." The names of the
jurors who returned the above presentment were James Henry, fore-
man, George Cottava, James Connor, George McDougall, J. Farwell,
Jacob Visger, John Anderson, J. B. Beaugrand, David Beard, T. East-
man, Henry Berthelet, Chabert de Joncaire, John Dodemead, Samuel
T, Dyson, M. Leinger and Josiah Brady.
CHAPTER XL.
Tecumseh and the Prophet Plan to Drive the Americans out of the West — They
Rouse the Indians to HostiUty, Intending to Unite with the British— General Har-
rison Defeats Them at the Battle of Tippecanoe, November 7, 1811.
When Hull was made governor of the Territory he was also made In-
dian agent, an office which was then connected with that of the execu-
tive. The last named office was very important, as there were then
only 4,860 white persons in the Territory, of whom about four-fifths
were French, and the remainder Americans, with a few British. The
Indian settlements comprised those of the Potawatomies, Miamis,
Wyandottes, Chippewas, Winnebagoes, Ottawas and others. These
were the tribes which afterward united with Tecumseh and the
Prophet, and were allies of England against the United States in
the war of 1812, as they had formerly been united under Pontiac
against the English as allies of France. The Indians felt that the
people of the United States were their natural enemies, because they
293
were perpetually being encroached upon by them. In 1806, in an
official communication to Secretary of War Dearborn, Hull stated that
his main objects were to extinguish gradually the Indian title, and to
instruct the red men in agriculture and the mechanic arts.
In 1806 the Indians became restless under the teachings of Tecum-
seh, chief of the Shawnees, and his brother, the Prophet. The tide of
American immigration was beginning to flow westward, and the In-
dians resented the settling of the white men on what they considered
their hunting grounds. The Americans were farmers and proposed to
permanently occupy the land, but the British who came west were
either traders or hunters like themselves. These causes had already
begun to produce the Indian confederation of which Tecumseh and his
brother were the principal heads. The two went everywhere and held
innumerable councils, and belts of wampum rapidly circulated between
all the tribes. In this movement the hand of Great Britain was some-
times discernible. At this time the Indian title had only been extin-
guished in Michigan at the post of Detroit and the district adjacent,
bounded north by Lake St. Clair and south by the River Raisin; also
at Mackinac Island, at the adjacent island of Bois Blanc and six miles
of the adjacent mainland. Except these small strips of land, all of
Michigan was, legally, still in the possession of the Indians. In pur-
suance with this plan, Hull executed treaties at Detroit in 1807 with
the Ottawa, Potawatomie and Wyandotte tribes, by which they ceded
to the United States the territory in southeast Michigan bounded south
by the river and bay of Miami; west by a line running north and south
through the middle of the territory as far north as Saginaw Bay, and
north by a line running from this point to White Rock on Lake Huron.
In recompense for this land annuities were paid. Much confusion
arose in regard to land titles, owing to the numerous grants made by
the Indians during the French and English regimes, and to the con-
flicting terms of the treaties of Fort Mcintosh, Fort Harmar and
Greenville. The Indians were cajoled by the British officials and
Indian agents at Maiden (Amherstburg) into the belief that they had
been frightened